The Rise of the Imperium: Shards of Hope
by BlackOps04
Summary: Ten years after the movie, Akito is still on the run with Ruri & Co. trying to bring him home. But humanity has streched far into space, and forces beyond their reckoning await them. A Nadesico & Warhammer 40k crossover. First fic. Please Read & Review.
1. Prologue 'revised'

_The Nadesico_ in the Imperium of Man - Vol. 1: Shards of Hope

**Prologue**

The tension was palpable on the bridge of the _Prince Henry III_. The colony carrier and her consorts had just been driven at gun point from their designated star system dozens of light years away from Earth.

"What the Hell?" muttered administrator Joanna Tillman as she tried to straighten out what had happened only three hours ago. The head colonist had seen images of the star system throughout the extensive planning nine months prior to the launch of the small colony fleet. They had shown absolutely no signs of previous settlement. And for the three months of travel in what was still called 'boson space', everyone was geared to start new lives on an earth-like alien world.

Instead, they dropped out of 'boson space' into the guns of hundreds of black painted frigates and destroyers of unknown manufacture. They immediately 'requested', in a very friendly manner of course, that the colony fleet turn back to Earth because the entire sector was dangerous and unfit for new settlement. When the new settlers had protested, and threatened to call for UEAF reinforcements, a small number of the unknown vessels destroyed every long range communications and sensor unit in the fleet with precise rail gun shots.

Left with no other options, the colony fleet left the system. But only a single escort ship headed back to Earth; the rest of the fleet was going to the Alpha site, a secondary planet to colonize should something disastrous occur in the primary site. "Well, at least the _baka_s at the home office had the sense to come up with a backup plan, Ma'am," said one of the subordinate crew members.

"Yes, I _suppose_ we should be grateful for that." The administrator said with overbearing sarcasm. Home office should have gotten it right the first time. At least, when the dispatched frigate gets back, whoever it was they overlooked during the scouting surveys would get a visit from the UEAF Sol System Combined Fleet. The _nerve_ they had, forcing them to leave the system that rightfully belonged to the colonists by charter! And making up some B.S. story about some unnamed danger…

"Ma'am!" a shocked voice from the crew man on the sensor array shouted, "the short range sensors just picked up a large boson jump fifteen degrees off starboard!"

Before the senior officers could respond, he shouted again in a more panicked voice, "MULTIPLE HIGH- SPEED INBOUND TARGETS! HUNDREDS OF THEM!"

The Administrator's face went white even as two of the five remaining frigates exploded in front of the colony ship. Scores of scorpion-like attack drones swarmed all through the formation, energy blasts spewing from their arched tails. Through the screech of damage alerts, the sensors reported that a formation of two dozen capital ships now approached them. The lead ship was sleek, black, and scarcely visible to the naked eye…

And it transmitted repeatedly the same message to every screen in the fleet: _Let hope bleed from every soul, for all will share in the Hell I've borne for too long! Tremble at the wrath of the eternal CHAOS! _A massive gravity blast reached across space, and the colony ship was blown to pieces…

* * *

…the fragments from Ryoko's latest kill danced across her display screen, blocking her view of the other three hostile Aestivalis that were attempting to escape. "Open fire! Don't let them get away!" Three of her wing men let loose a barrage from their laser cannons and the humanoid combat mechs disintegrated into tiny particles. "Alright, now everyone! Assault the dock yard!"

The space dock in the asteroid belt below was stirring with frantic activity. As her squadron drew closer, the camouflaged hanger doors on the massive asteroid began to retract, revealing numerous docked warships and combat mechs. Enemy Aesty wings were scrambling and crews were running to their ships. If only they hadn't bumped into that last patrol…

'No time for 'if only's, just focus on the objective.' Ryoko made herself focus hard on the enemy. "We may not have total surprise, but the enemy must be surprised as hell that we found them, anyway! Fry'em as they launch! And don't waste ANY of the heavy munitions on small fry!" It brought back memories from an old mission with Tenkawa when he had made that mistake and nearly cost all of them their lives.

"Aye, Ma'am!" her twenty-nine strong Aesty squadron acknowledged and cut loose as they descended on the enemy. A fury of lasers and anti-distortion shells tore through the last minute departures. "Ma'am, bogies detected skimming the 'roid from aft and below us!" One of her subordinates radioed.

She had already noticed the blips on her mech's radar. "Ignore them. Focus on the dock!" She ordered the nervous pilot, and maneuvered her squadron in front of the main hanger and proceeded to blast the nearest capital ship with her suit's particle cannon. The Aesties with the heavy particle cannons and anti-ship missiles focused on the warships while the others destroyed anything less worthy of such a spectacular death.

"Remember, this is the Jagged Wing battle fleet we're fighting, so show them no mercy!" Their orders specifically stated there were to be no prisoners taken. But she didn't hesitate to fulfill that order. Their death warrants were signed long ago, after their attack on the Lagrange-3 colony six years ago. They killed millions of civilians just to send a message to the United Earth Forces government. It reminded her of other crimes this group had committed. "This one's for Akito, you bastards!" she growled to herself as she worked the mech's weapon up a cruiser's bridge. A smiled with grim satisfaction as Ryoko watched the frantic bridge crew disintegrate.

This hidden base contained some the Successor's most elite and fanatical units. However, Ryoko and her forces were laying waste to it without much opposition. They were completely unprepared for an attack. And, aside from a few patrols, the enemy hadn't placed any defenses, like sensors, turrets, or mines, in order to make the base less conspicuous. It had kept them from detection in the Sol system for years. Now, that decision was costing them dearly.

The satisfied feeling flowed through her as she surveyed death and destruction sweeping through the hangar doors. Ryoko wondered if this was how Akito felt, waging his personal war across the stars. Constantly fighting, forever hunting his enemies…

"Ma'am, the enemy units are almost on top of us!" Ryoko just ignored the warning. Not a single one of her units turned to face the oncoming threat. The enemy thought they were going to get easy prey…

…Until two more squadrons of Aesties sprung out of ambush positions among the asteroids and launched a tidal wave of radar-guided missiles. Unable to evade the multi-directional barrage, the missiles struck with deadly effect. As Ryoko viewed the destruction of the aft group, she could have sworn the detonations were spelling out 'Hi, Ryoko!' in kanji… "Lt. Hikaru! Stop goofing around!"All she got in response was smiley face drawn out in missile kills. "Fine, you idiot! Just make sure you get them all!"

A gravity blast shot through the wreckage that had piled up at the entrance and wiped out five of the Aestivalis next to her. "Crap! Spread out!" Ryoko screamed as her Aesty's left arm disintegrated. Proximity alarms howled as an enemy battleship's protective graviton distortion shield came online and tore open a hole through the debris. "Give it everything we got! We can't allow it to escape!"

"Ryoko, pull your squadron back," a calm and neutral voice ordered, "The battle group is now in position and will finish the enemy off."

Ryoko quickly ordered all of her squadrons to withdraw and turned to watch as the entire Nadesico 'squadron' bored down on the lone enemy ship. The combined fire power of five frigates, three destroyers, two battleships (including the _Nadesico-C_), and their massive carrier flagship, the _Largesse,_ came to seventeen graviton wave cannons. And they blew the enemy ship into nonexistence in a single moment. Even a battleship's distortion field was no match for that many high-energy weapons.

More ships began to pour out of the asteroid base. The ships of the Nadesico squadron lined up their guns down the open hanger and fired again. The exposed innards of the base dissolved in the massive stream of energy. When the ships stopped firing, the asteroid was left dark and hallow. The stragglers were put down by missile fire, and, just to be sure no one would ever use _this_ asteroid again, they broke it up with a wave of nuclear missiles.

"Attention! This Captain Makibi speaking, all Aestivalis are to return to the _Largesse_ immediately."

"What?" Ryoko protested, "There might still be more of these scum hiding out there!"

"It isn't negotiable, _Commander_." The runt likes remind people of their rank way too much, Ryoko thought. "High command has given us new orders."

"New orders?"

* * *

**A/N: Thanks to some constructive criticism and advise from Sir Dakkalot, I've begun revising my earlier chapters of Shards of Hope. As of this writing, up to ****ch. 3 has been revised with emphasis on the prolouge and ch. 3 and flushing out details on things that are actually interesting not just background. So hopefully you all will enjoy the changes I've made and then hopefully I can get the next chapter done! Hopefully...**


	2. Chapter 1 'revised'

**A/N:** This chapter is all about what state the universe is in. It's a bit dreary, but please bear with me here. There may be some holes in my logic, so if you find them please point them out to me.

Also, anyone who hasn't at least played THQ's Dawn of War probably will not get any of the references to Warhammer 40k made throughout the fic. Regardless, please R&R.

**New Orders**

Numerous high ranking UEAF officers were gathered around a holographic plot of the known galaxy. In the center is the Sol system, shining the bright green of a friendly star system. Dozens of other green dots surrounded the spherical space 'closest' to the human homeworld. But further and further out from that comfortable sphere were growing numbers of yellow 'lost' colonies and crimson hostile colonies.

Strangely, most of the admirals weren't focusing on the star map. The hour was late and all of them had grown bored of the meeting. Rather, they were haggling and whispering amongst themselves and were making gestures in the direction of a lone admiral at the end of the conference table. A good deal of money was being exchanged between them as well.

"And nearly every single crimson dot is nearby that strange, damned vortex." The lowest ranking admiral in the UEAF Space Fleet said quietly to himself.

Rear Admiral Jun Aoi shuddered as he thought of that vortex. He didn't know what it was about the dang thing, but it gave him an unwavering sense of dread every time he thought about it. It was the same thing he felt on Mars, when he saw Yurika fused to the Martian Relic and the darkness that rested in Akito's countenance. It was seeing pain and anguish taking material form. Except he could feel the vortex from dozens of light years away, on fringes of known space…

"Did you say something Jun?" Jun's mind raced back to the present as he heard Admiral Misumaru's voice. The rear admiral had the words, 'Oh, crap,' written all over his face. He did his best to hide his reddening cheeks when he realized he'd been thinking out loud again. Now of all times, he thought.

When the young admiral got hold of his tongue again, he managed to squeak out, "The Vortex, sir."

"Hmmm? The Boson Particle Vortex is bothering you again, huh?" Admiral Misumaru said with understanding concern. Not only was the Vortex dangerous due to its ability to warp space and make normal navigation impossible, it also caused uncontrollable boson jumps that had already cost dozens of ships and thousands of lives and sometimes generated violent, and very deadly, energy storms.

And now it seemed that trouble brewed around it as well. The once friendly colonies of happy, law-abiding citizens quickly fell to some unseen evil influence around that vortex. Their societies rapidly plunged into violent anarchy and eventually brutal cult oligarchies took control of the colonies.

"Yes, sir," said Jun. And he remembered that the reports from the spy satellites over their (remaining) population centers weren't comforting either. Transmissions picked up from the 'vortex systems' regularly included slogans like, 'The CHAOS will guide us,' or, 'By CHAOS are we made whole,' or 'Khorne empowers us,' or even, 'Immortality is ours!' Such senseless banter had left the home office baffled and in a mad scramble for answers. It was unknown what they meant by 'the CHAOS' since those cult colonies were so highly organized it wasn't real chaos they spoke of or who this Khorne they referred to was. Jun had often brought up the possibility that more alien relics had been discovered there, but Intelligence believed that simply wasn't the case.

"What else could have made them so powerful?" Jun thought out loud again. "Whatever was causing it, the answer must lie in the Vortex." Then he noticed everyone turned to look at him this time. His face turned cherry red, and he slowly sank into his chair and then into his hands. He muttered, "Why me, Lord?"

"Before you completely consume yourself in despair, Jun," another admiral offered, half-sarcastically, in his west Texas accent, "why don't you explain just what's passin' through your head? Any suggestions on how to handle these crazy nut-bars are welcome. We've already ruled out full-scale military operations due to our insufficient fleet strength…"

"…And negotiations with these particular lunatics would be about as successful as negotiations with the Successors went," another admiral chimed in. "So…"

Then almost everybody in the room demanded, "…What do you think?" And Jun reeled back sharply from the impact.

'What! How come I have to come up with a plan?' he thought dumbfounded.

"And by the way, no pressure." The Texan admiral added while he laughed to himself. The more senior admirals, like Misumaru and Munetake, just sat in silence as if unaffected by the events in the room.

Jun stared at them for a few seconds before shaking himself back into a semblance of calm. He put on his serious face to show he was deep in thought. 'Alright, pull it together Jun! This might be another chance for a promotion! Or at least some more respect. This idea I tossed around a while isn't fully cooked yet but it will have to do.'

An admiral with blocky Russian features was watching the archaic hands on his wrist watch. 'They're growing _impatient_! It's now or…' He made a dramatic show of quickly rising out of his chair and pointing to the Vortex on the star chart as though some great revelation had come to him about it. He opened his mouth to speak and… "JUUUNNN!"

"Gaaahhh!" Jun screamed out as the massive sound wave sent him flying backwards. Paper and other clutter went airborne and descended all around the other officers present and a holoscreen appeared where Jun had just been standing. The face of a very beautiful girl whose face was a fierce shade of angry red stared out from it.

"Jun, you promised me that you'd get today off so we could go out to dinner with my boss and his wife tonight! He invited us personally, _if you recall_! And I show up at our home with my boss in tow, thinking your all spruced up to make a good impression, and _you're at work INSTEAD_, you _JERK!_ Of all the _NERVE…_"

Everyone else in the room just looked on casually at the spectacle, as though they had expected it. And they had. In fact, the Texan was laughing so hard that he couldn't stand anymore and was rolling around on the conference table. The younger officers were already gathering the disheveled papers and tidying up the room.

One them looked Jun's direction and just sighed as she shifted dutifully through the mess. She was a cute, young lt. commander with short, blonde hair and blue eyes. 'How can that woman just treat _my_ admiral that way? Can't she see all the trouble she causes for him?' she thought despairingly. As Jun's adjutant and all around right-hand woman, she was very protective of 'her' admiral. But Jun had told her repeatedly to not intervene when his wife got like that, so she would do nothing, though not without difficulty.

"Well, Jun _almost_ got a word in this time," the Russian admiral with the old fashion watch boomed in a deep baritone as Jun took the fierce thrashing from the girl on the view screen. "She was 1.5672 seconds behind her previous time."

"That guy has the worst luck I have ever seen. I guess this proves our little theory about him though." Another admiral said musingly. With a quizzical glance at the other admiral, he added, "And just how in hell can you be so damn confident of that timing with such an old relic anyway?"

The Texan admiral pushed himself off of the table he had fallen on in his fit of laughter. He was still laughing hysterically at the whole ordeal when walked up to the pair who were talking. "So, she was off by 1.56-11-2 seconds, ya' reckon?"

"I do not 'reckon' anything. I _know_ she was 1.56-_**7**__-_2 seconds off." The Russian took the moment to push up his glasses with his middle finger.

"Ya' don't say, Admiral Kuchinkov?" the Texan said, amused, and then shouted in the fighting couple's direction, interrupting something about what wasn't going to happen that night. "Hey, Yukina, darlin'!"

The admirals and other officers in the room turned to him in shocked horror. The other Admiral in the trio sputtered, "Are you insane, man? She's mad enough already!"

Undeterred, the Texan continued, "Seems your losing your edge. Jun almost got 'round to saying somethin' important this time." _Everyone_ backed far away from him at that point. They could view her wrath casually from a distance but you had to be _insane_ to intentionally draw it to yourself!

Yukina's holoscreen abruptly went silent briefly but began to tremble violently in the air. Then, just as suddenly, the screen appeared before the smirking admiral at a size large enough that it looked like it might devour him. The vein on her forehead was pulsing quite furiously and she began slowly, "What… did… you… _SAY TO ME!_?" Yup, she would have eaten him alive if it were possible. The roar of her shouting was greater than even the blast that blew Jun away. Everyone except the smug Texan and Jun, who was too confused to do anything but stare at the Texan and his wife's image, had their backs firmly against the wall in fright. "You dumb, prick Yank! First, you should know by now that you address a Japanese woman with CHAN at the end of her name as a sign of respect! Second, I'm not your 'darlin'! And third, the only reason I have to keep ruining Jun's spotlight is because you navy dick heads keep him from fulfilling his promises to me! Quit #$%^ing laughing, damn you!"

After a few more chuckles, he did stop. And his face suddenly became deadly serious, "Well, I'm sorry that Jun's occupation doesn't fit your schedule. And I'm sorry that the whole freakin' galaxy is falling apart and it's our job to patch it up. And, as I'm sure Jun tried to explain, you're interrupting a very important meeting and we don't have any more time for these antics. Oh, and one more thing."

"What?" she said impatiently.

"I ain't no Yankee. I'm a Texan. It's _disrespectful _to call me otherwise. Good night!" Just before she could let lose another angry retort he slammed the screen closed on her. "A.I. Block any further calls from Yukina Aoi." Everyone stared at him in astonishment. That guy was either really brave or really, _really_ messed up in the head.

The stern look on the Texan's face faded and a faint smile took its place. He walked over to where Jun was still laying on the floor and offered his hand to help Jun up. "That gal is quite a handful, pal. But she really does care about ya', and that's sayin' somethin', Mr. Tough Luck." Jun took his hand and got to his feet. An excited smile then spread across the admiral's face. "Rear admiral, I am pleased to tell you, however, that Admiral Misumaru has approved giving you the next week off. It's a great opportunity to make things up to your gal."

"Err… Admiral Hoffmann…"

Admiral Misumaru then proudly proclaimed, "There is nothing more precious than spending time with loved ones when you could be shipped off into battle at any moment! With that said, let's call it a night, ladies and gentlemen."

"Aye, sir!" exclaimed many voices eager to forget today, save two who were congratulating each other as they rifled through a huge stack of cash. Only Admiral Hoffmann, Jun, and his adjutant remained in the room.

Jun's confusion grew as he tried to add what Misumaru said into everything else he'd heard today. They hadn't even heard his plan yet, much less _approved_ one. Why were they leaving now? It was only midnight at the office. Going till 2 or 6 AM wouldn't kill anybody. And why were they giving him a week off…

"Oh, and by the way," Admiral Hoffman said with his sly smile, "while you were day dreaming about the Vortex earlier, we approved a plan to send our favorite little couple in the Fleet, with their little fleet, out to handle the 'Vortex situation'."

"You mean Ruri and Haley's squadron," and that meant Yurika, too. Dammit! He had wanted to keep her out of this fight! It was beginning to look bloodier than any war they had fought in.

"Yup, that's right. They're currently docked in the Mars shipyards for refits. In one week they'll be bringing our latest military hardware to the front lines against the cultists. And it's also convenient that their primary objective also seems to be in the area. It's the perfect excuse to violate the enemy's 'sphere of influence'." So, Ruri and Yurika get to be the UEAF's tool for bringing down the cultists, Jun thought.

"And," Hoffman continued, "I know we've kept that year old report about Akito hiding in the Vortex hidden from them for their own safety this whole time but I think now is good time to let them see it." Yurika was going to kill him for this, but Jun knew just how zealous she and Ruri were in their hunt for Akito. They would have gone into the off limits area of the Vortex against orders as soon as they read that report. And they would have died pointlessly like everyone else who entered it. It was a mystery how Akito had survived in there for so long. So he had agreed to suppress the findings. But now…

Now something clicked in Jun's head. Why did he have a week off at the same time the _Nadesico_ squadron was in for refits for _exactly_ one week? It was too convenient…

"Ahhh, so you finally figured it out, huh?" Hoffman said. "The plan requires a senior officer to be present to direct the actions of wild cards like Ruri and Yurika. And you're a _perfect_ candidate." That emphasis on the "perfect" gave away its intended meaning all too clearly. Normally it would mean that he knew them very well and had their trust from years of fighting together. But the way the admiral put it, he was the most junior admiral in the entire UEAF, and thus the most expendable. Whether he was killed by enemy fire or if the girls decided to rip him apart for lying to them about Akito, he could be replaced.

Oh, what had Ruri once said about conventional military wisdom?

And even if he did survive the first five minutes, he already knew there would be nothing he could do if Ruri or Yurika, or both of them, came up with a clever idea. Why did HQ always underestimate his old friends?

Hoffman's face became almost fatherly, "Now I know this seems cold and harsh, because it is. But you stand the greatest chance of succeeding of anyone we can send, Jun. You're the only high ranking officer those two really trust." The older man then turned to walk out the door, grabbing a pile of Federal Credits on his way out. "Oh, and spend your time with Yukina well while ya' can."

"Wait, before you go, sir."

"Yes, Jun?"

"If you all already had a plan, why did you bother to ask for mine?"

"Well, ya' see, me and the other admirals kinda had this bet…" He waved the stack of plastic cards in his hands so Jun could get a good look at them.

'A bet?' Jun thought depressingly, 'I already don't like where this is going,' as he exasperatedly sweat dropped.

"But it was also kind of a science experiment to see if Yukina would instinctively interrupt you as soon as we gave you an opportunity to say something of importance…" And it grew larger…

"Judging from your records, it seems fate has decreed that you should be rendered to a state of near total _insignificance_ by some wacky coincidence or another…" And continued to grow until…

"And, well, me and the two other admirals you saw me talking to earlier won all the money." The sweat drop on Jun's head reached its humanly sustainable limit.

"Well, I hope that answers your question Jun. 'Night!" And then he swiftly disappeared out the door as Jun dropped to the floor again under the combined weight of the sweat drop and Hoffman's sheer impudence. From down the hallway the admiral suddenly yelled, "Dammit! Those two bastards shorted me out of 20,000 Credits!"

Jun laid there for few moments, thinking, 'Well, if they thought Yukina was mad just now, I don't know what she'll be when I tell her _this_. But her anger would fade after I confessed my short comings to her and apologized for failing her today.' Then he realized that Hoffman had deliberately redirected his wife's anger toward himself in order for Jun to make the most of his time before he departed to his new assignment.

Jun then began laughing at the irony of it all. That guy certainly had a strange way of making up to you after planning to send you to an almost certain death! Certain death at Yurika's hands anyway. And then having the gall to tell him that he bet in favor of Jun's bad luck just to prove Jun had bad luck.

His adjutant walked over to him and helped him up. "They never can take things easy on you, Sir." Her expression showed her compassionate pity for 'her' admiral. He couldn't help but feel incredibly fortunate to have a woman like her around for moments like this. Though she didn't consider herself to be anything except his subordinate, she was a good friend.

With a friendly smile he said, "Thank you, Amy."

Lt. Commander Amelia Tucker flushed as Jun used her nickname. "Sir! It-t-t's not proper etiquette to use a subordinate's common name!" she scolded him, flustered, "Please address me with the appropriate title! Gawd! How many times do I have to tell you that?"

Jun's mood had changed considerably thanks to Admiral Hoffmann's absurd idea of humor. Still smiling, Jun said with mild playfulness as he dusted himself off, "Now is that any way to speak to your superior?" Amy's flush grew deeper. She hated falling for that old trap. "But if that is how you feel…"

"You always say that. Yet you keep on getting sloppy with the regs, sir!" She promptly pulled out her copy of '_The Book: A Naval Officer's Best Friend'. _Though the words came out testy and indignant, she was still somewhat flushed.

"I guess it comes from serving on the _Nadesico-A_ all those years ago. Many of my old friends still serve with her successors in the _Nadesico_ squadron. You'll get the chance to meet some of them when we're transferred next week." The straight-laced officer inside Lt. Commander Tucker grimaced at the thought of shipping out with the most misfit unit in the entire UEAF; a reputation that evidently dated as far back as first 10 minutes of the original _Nadesico_'s deployment.

Amelia dutifully replied, "Looking forward to it, sir."

Jun chuckled at her obvious unwillingness to go. "Well, we have more important stuff to do right now, anyway."

"Like what, sir?" She said excitedly. She liked the feeling of doing something that made a difference.

"First, sleep." Her excitement swiftly faded. "Then, fill out my planner for the next week. I want to make this extra special for Yukina."

'Why can't you just concentrate on your career instead of that woman for once?' she thought, 'All she is good for is making more trouble for you.'

"Shall we go then, _Lt. Commander_?" Even as he said that he was thinking, 'Well, I certainly owe more than a week's attention to Yukina for slowing down long enough to marry me, but it is a start.' Then out loud he said "Yukina, this is going to be all about you, Hon." All Lt. Commander Amelia Tucker could do was stare down at the floor as they left the situation room.

* * *

**A/N: **I'd like to end this by saying that I'm sorry for some of the BAD jokes in this chapter. Really, I'm sorry. But I had to do _something_ with it. Anyway, I hope you won't let my poor attempts at humor dissuade you from reading further.


	3. Chapter 2 'revised'

**A Mars Reunion**

The breeze was blowing gently across the green, rolling hills of New Utopia, Mars. "It was like this that day, too," a soft, tired voice said.

Inside the mind behind the voice, memories of a childhood spent here washed over her. Now, the memory she revisited was bitter sweet. One her husband had shared with her but she had forgotten until too late. Far too late.

She remembered running across the large hills for hours as little girl searching for him. When she finally found him, he was sitting in a fetal position crying into his knees. She did her best to comfort him but he still kept persisting on being left alone. And then, she had a stunning idea. The tactical part of her brain at work no doubt. She'd trick him out of his misery.

"Akito, wanna see a magic trick that will turn you back to normal?" He didn't say anything but gave her a small expression of approval. "Then close your eyes!" she said excitedly. He did as he was told and then… their first kiss.

As she expected, he went right back to his old, cootie fearing self. "EEEWWW!" he exclaimed but she tackled him and went right on kissing him. She might have given herself a big 'V' for victory if she wasn't already 'preoccupied' with the boy of her dreams. But there they were: a terrified 8 year old Akito and a love struck 10 year old Yurika making out on a hill at sunset. Yurika chuckled a little at the thought. Gawd, where had she learned to do that anyway?

She was smiling now as she sat on that same hill she had her first kiss on. Little bouts of humor like that were good for her. Her despair turned back into hope as she looked onward to the day that she and Akito could kiss again. Her smile grew as she remembered what Akito had once told her about this memory, "When it first came back to me in a dream aboard the _Nadesico,_ it disturbed me _a lot_. Especially when you couldn't (and still can't) seem to remember it. But now it is more precious to me than even that year we shared fighting together, because it is my first memory of your love for me… and me for you." It was the same in her heart and soul now, as well.

She heard the sound of footsteps on the soft grass behind her. 'That would be my keeper,' the beautiful captain thought, annoyed. The young Lt. Commander Jason Owens was not only her Executive Officer, but also the one charged with maintaining her mental health. He actually was not a combat officer but a psychiatrist from the Medical Corps.

He also seemed to have the uncanny ability to know what she was thinking and the ability to ask just the right questions in just the right way to get her to open up to him. It was really disturbing and annoying. But he was, however, very effective at his job because of it.

"I know I'm a bother, Captain," he said with his usual vague hint that he knew what she was thinking, "but it is finally time to prepare the _Nadesico-C_ to return to active status."

"You didn't have to walk all the way out here, you know." Yurika said to him tartly. She really didn't like other people intruding her private places like this. "A comm. screen would have worked just fine."

"And miss out on all this lovely scenery?" he responded as he took in the landscape around them. "Never." His comment was only half sarcastic. In the distance, they could see the massive and multiplying industrial complexes and shipyards that brought wealth, power, and, most importantly, settlers back to Mars.

"Our ideas of beauty are quite different." She told him.

"Beauty _is_ in the eye of the beholder, Ma'am. To me, human endeavor and strength is beautiful. To you, whatever memories and experiences that bond you with _him_ here make it beautiful." Yurika gave him a sharp look. How could he possibly know or understand what she felt about this place? She had never shared its location or significance with anyone before.

Owens laughed and said, "It doesn't take a psychic to know that all you can think about is him, Ma'am. Anything you do is toward being with him again." He dropped back into his usual serious disposition, "Regardless, it is time we got back to the ship."

With a resigned sigh, Captain Yurika Tenkawa of the United Earth Armed Forces turned her thoughts away from the past and back to the present. She stood and faced her XO with all the dignity and stature of her rank. "Alright Lt. Commander, take my hands. We'll jump straight to the bridge."

"Aye, Ma'am!"

With a flash of blue light they vanished from the hill.

* * *

"ATTENTION! Admiral on deck!" shouted an NCO as Rear Admiral Jun disembarked from his shuttle, with his adjutant right behind him, towards the awaiting greeting party. All of the crew present for the procession snapped immediately to a very stiff and professional attention. Jun blushed a little; he loved the navy but the excess formalities were always too much for him.

It also reminded him that he was leaving his wife behind again for his duties after having a fun and exciting week together. This mostly involved Yukina dragging him to all her favorite places across Japan. Although he didn't mind; his wife had great taste. And also several romantic evenings together, which he didn't mind at all. It seemed she enjoyed just having him to herself for once.

Nonetheless, they marched confidently between the two parallel rows of crewmen towards the pair of small officers waiting at the end. The first was a stunning, young, pale woman with long silver hair that was put up in long ponytails on either side of her head. The platinum eagle on the collar of her white naval uniform bore the rank of commodore. The other at her shoulder was equal in height and stature except his short black hair and darker Japanese skin tone gave stark contrast to his superior's near albino complexion. His collar bore a captain's silver star and a crescent moon to indicate his special status as second-in-command after the commodore.

But they had two things in common. They shared the same brilliant, shimmering eyes that were the mark of genetically modified children, embarrassingly nicknamed 'electronic fairies' for their super intelligence as well as their awe-inspiring powers over electronic technology and computers. And they both had identical gold wedding bands on their right ring fingers.

As Jun walked down the line, he noticed Yurika standing in the line to his right. She gave him her usual warm smile and waved to him. Go figure she'd be the one to break with tradition. The crewmen around her sighed heavily or made irritated noises about the fact that she would get away with it.

Still facing forward, he gave her a nod and smile in return and marched on down the line. It felt good to be back in this still backwards (as far as the military was concerned) and awkward (as far as he was concerned) environment. Even though she was silent, Jun could hear the complaints being compiled in his adjutant's mind.

He reached the point in the procession where he and Commodore Ruri exchanged the traditional salute and hand shake. "Welcome aboard the ND-1483 _Largesse_, Admiral Aoi, Sir." Her voice was sweetly assuring and mature. It was also strangely reassuring that the navy and Nergal kept up the grand old tradition of assigning their ships highly unmenacing names…

Yet, the name fit the giant Aestivalis Carrier that served as the flag ship for the squadron like a glove. It had more than enough room for its 90-strong 'Heavy Assault' Aesty compliment, multi-barreled gravity cannons, launch tubes, missile bays, massive sensor and communications hard-ware, and_ twelve_ PT engines; along with plenty of living space and comforts for the crew. Say what you will about Nergal's ethics, but they never built anything on the cheap side.

Formally precise, Jun said, "Thank you, Commodore." Anxious to get through his discomfort, he continued, "Now that that's out of the way, how about we just drop the formalities?" Behind him he heard the entire greeting party, save Yurika, since she was never at attention to begin with, heave a great sigh and relieved phrases like, "Oh, thank God!" and, "I couldn't hold it another second!" or "About damn time!" Incoherent noises of dismay and disgust emanated from Amelia. Ruri just smiled at Amelia's reaction to her crew's predictable behavior.

Jun thought with a little disappointment, 'We've only been onboard for all of three minutes and she was already about to die from exposure to a lax atmosphere. Well, I better go to her rescue.'

He did a smart about-face and made his 'displeasure' distinctly visible on his face. "And just who in hell gave all you worthless space-tramps permission to stand at rest?" Jun barked. Nearly everyone snapped back to attention in a panic.

Many still remembered Jun as that poor sap that was_ so_ easily whipped by a high school girl that he actually wore Yukina's gym clothes to serve refreshments on the shuttle ride ten years ago. But now, at age thirty-five and at his full height of six feet and two inches, not to mention his shiny admiral's insignia, he was imposing and quite an officer to be reckoned with. 'That's the Admiral Jun Aoi I like best! Taking command of the situation!' the Lt. Commander thought with a smile.

Yurika's face puffed with indignation, "I am _not_ a tramp! Nor do I or have I _ever looked_ like a tramp!" Then the look on her face became horrified, "Oh Gawd! I don't look like a tramp do I?" Everyone dropped out of attention to stare at the ever ditzy Captain Yurika Tenkawa.

Jun massaged the space between his eyes. In the patient voice he often used when Yurika achieved an even higher level of ditziness, he said, "Yurika, why don't you go get everyone some fresh cookies from the cafeteria."

Yurika began glowing, "That's a brilliant idea, Jun! Refreshments are the perfect way to welcome you here! I'll get everyone my favorite kind!" And she darted away at high speed, purpose in every step. Jun was having trouble suppressing a smile, 'I can't believe that actually still works.'

Staring after the blue haired officer, Amelia said, "Oh my Gawd!"

After that last comment, the hanger fell into silence. Finally satisfied, Jun said, "It's your call now, Ruri."

Shaking her head, but still smiling, she mildly spoke, "Alright, everyone is dismissed." The majority of the crew darted away as fast as possible but a few made their way towards Jun and Ruri's group. Ruri continued speaking, "I see that you've finally become the officer you always wanted to be, Jun."

"It helps when you get away from all the drama."

"No freakin' joke!"

"Did you say something, Amy?"

"Nothing, si…" She swiftly snapped at him, "Sir!"

"My apologies, Lt. Commander."

With a brief giggle, Haley said, "It seems like you still have plenty of drama following you around." Amelia gave him a sharp look. Taken aback, Haley blustered, "I-I-I didn't mean to imply that you were the cause of it all, Lt. Commander. Honest!"

"It seems you're still as easily flustered as ever, Captain Makibi."

Haley's cheeks went red and he shouted to the ceiling, "I am NOT!"

"Oh yes you are… sir," a new voice mockingly intruded. An attractive, but deathly pale, face with ink black hair popped out from behind Amy. Amy shrieked when she saw it. Then a red headed figure with glasses poked out from Amy's other flank and shouted, "Hi!" Amy sprung away to reveal Izumi Maki and Hikaru Amano standing immediately behind her.

"Now Izumi," a motherly voice now interjected, "that's the part of him that makes him so cute when he's with Ruri." Haley was a fascinatingly bright shade of red as Minato Haruka moved up behind him and Ruri and laid an affectionate hand on each of their shoulders. But when Ruri reassuringly took Hari's hand he seemed to regain his composure.

Yurika had returned with the cookies. She quickly finished one of her favorite white chocolate macadamia nut cookies and walked up to Amelia a little embarrassed, "Pardon Izumi and Hikaru, Lt. Commander Amelia. I'm afraid no one has ever been able to control them. I am Captain Yurika Tenkawa of the _Nadesico-C_. And would you like a cookie?" Yurika offered her hand and the tray of sweets to the newcomer. Amy looked at her in surprise but took her hand and a cookie anyway. "My dearest friend Jun has told me so many great things about you."

"R-R-Really?" Amy blushed.

"Yup! He always talks about how valuable your help is, and how you're always there to help him out of problems with the other admirals, and about how your determination keeps his head above the paper work…" As Amy listened, she felt herself overcome with various emotions. The foremost of which was her joy at being able to serve with as kind an officer as Admiral Jun Aoi. "…You know what?" Yurika concluded; munching on another cookie, "You do the same thing for Jun that he did for me when he was my Executive officer."

"Do you… well… If you really think that then…," Amy found herself bonding with Yurika despite her previous judgments about her, "Do you think that I'll be as good an officer as Jun someday?"

The admiral had overheard their conversation. The memory of her skill handling a lone frigate against a swarm of attackers to allow for the rest of his flotilla to flank them surfaced to his mind. "I'd say you already are." Jun said from behind her. "All you need is the rank to match your skill."

Amy found herself so embarrassed that she couldn't turn to face him. Yurika just smiled sweetly. 'Ah, how cute. Even though he has grown in age and rank, Jun is still as sweet and kind as ever.' Then she noticed Izumi and Hikaru hovering nearby with sadistic grins on their faces. Sadly, that wasn't the only thing that hadn't changed.

"Just _how_ were you lucky enough to wind up with such a cute secretary, Jun…?" Hikaru began, directing her question at Jun. He was caught completely off guard. He had never been the center of one of Hikaru and Izumi's attacks before.

Amy tried to interject after being insultingly called a mere secretary but then Izumi directed her own statement towards the unprepared officer, "… And it sure seems like you and the admiral are awfully _close_, Amelia," with a nudge to the ribs.

Having successfully flustered and mentally isolated their victims, both Jun and Amy simultaneously shouted, "We are professionals, dammit-!" They cut themselves off abruptly when they realized they were speaking in sync. Blushing brightly, they also realized that they had effectively killed their argument.

"It sure seems like this couple _couples_ quite readily." Izumi commented with sputtered laughter at her own play on words. Jun dragged his right hand down his face out of sheer frustration. No one had ever been able to escape these two once they went on the attack. Amy had already left the realm of frustration and was visibly enraged.

"My-O-My, Jun! I didn't take you to be the sort of guy to have a girl-on-the-side." Hikaru said teasingly, wagging a finger at him. It was the second after she said that that she opened her eyes to see a white gloved fist colliding with her face.

Hikaru's glasses soared as her body twisted 180 degrees and flew back several feet; landing on her stomach. "How DARE you insult the dignity of the admiral that way!" Venom and hate filled Amy's voice as she brought to bear her righteous indignation as an officer of the UEAF. "Do you make it a point to insult your superior officers in their faces or are you both just stupid?" Everyone within view stared in shocked horror at the speed she cleared the distance between Hikaru and herself and the ferocity behind her punch and voice. Rarely had personal quarrels among the crew of the Nadesico come to blows. And Amy's fighting stance clearly indicated that she was ready for more.

Izumi frantically waved her hands in front of her in a plea for mercy, "Ma'am, we… we really didn't-."

"Put a sock in it, both of you," a firm and mildly irritated female voice cut Izumi off, "And don't bother trying to excuse yourselves, either. I'm used to your B.S., but I warned both of you to behave when we have visitors or you _would_ run into someone you couldn't handle. So grow up and act like officers for _once_ in your damn lives!" The woman chastising the insolent pair carried herself as any seasoned officer should, and demanded that of the other officers under her command.

Amy had put down her fists as this other woman took control of things. She had short black hair and brown eyes and was wearing a red, skin tight pilot's suit. She turned her attention to Amelia, "It's about time we had someone on board who can keep those two in check." She extended her hand. "Commander Ryoko Subaru."

Amelia took her hand, "Lt. Commander Amelia Tucker, Ma'am."

"By the way, that's one nasty punch you've got there."

"I'd say." Hikaru muttered as picked up her glasses with one hand and massaged the side of her face that was swelling with the other.

Then Jun said, "You'd better remember it, Hikaru. Amelia is a qualified expert in hand-to-hand combat." She froze with a nervous terror. Ryoko nodded approvingly. Everyone else gave the 'I already read it in her dossier' nod. "If you and Izumi just behave yourselves, I'm sure you'll come through this assignment with your lives." Both seemed to stop breathing for few moments. "However, I think you took things a little too far, Amelia."

"Sorry, Sir. I'll keep a hold on my anger next time."

The large Goat Hoary came running up with several armed marines in tow. "I heard reports of a fight breaking out down here. Just what the hell could have gone wrong already?" He was clearly in full military paranoia mode.

"You big brute!" Minato released her usual aggravation with Goat's security precautions. "Were the soldiers and rifles really necessary?"

He calmly retorted, "Until I know just what is happening, _yes_."

While those two were fighting, Ruri walked back up to Jun, "Well, Admiral, if you haven't already had your fill of drama, there is someone who has been waiting to see you all day."

Jun turned around, confused. The only people he hadn't seen yet were Seiya Uribatake and Inez Fressange, and they weren't particularly close either. So who then? "I'd like for you to meet our newest communications officer. She arrived just yesterday with another important crew member." In a flurry of energy and red-brown hair, she jumped into his arms.

"Whoa, WTF!" 'Just who…' he began to think.

And then his brain came to a shrieking halt. It couldn't be her…

"Aren't you happy to see me?"

He looked down in his arms and saw Yukina looking up at him with wounded eyes. "Yukina, w-w-w-why are you here?" More drama, hell! This was the damn Twilight Zone. "More importantly, how did you get here? How could have possibly beaten me here?" The more he tried to think about it the more confused he became. By the scowl that formed on her face, that wasn't the answer she wanted.

"Well I'm sorry that I hurt your ego!" She shouted and turned away from him with arms crossed.

"Hon, that's not what I-." She began to march away from him. "Please, I-."

"Oh, why don't you just spend your time with your _girlfriend_ over there?" Jun stopped in shock.

"I am not his GIRLFRIEND, DAMN IT!" Amelia shouted at Yukina.

"Commander, stay out of this! That's an _**order**_!"

Feeling strangely dejected, Amy responded, "Aye, Sir."

Feeling a bit guilty for having to slap down his most trusted officer that way, Jun continued to beg to Yukina, "Would you please just explain this-."

An excited voice then interrupted everything, "Did someone ask for an _explanation_?" The beautiful blonde-haired woman in a scientist's coat still had her knack for joining the conversation without anyone noticing her until she wanted to be seen. Moans and complaints echoed throughout the hanger bay. The entire crew had gone through enough of these to be worn thin by them, "Oh, don't worry," Professor Inez Fressange said in the same cheery tone, "this explanation will be so short and simple that even our Aestivalis pilots will understand it."

Ryoko, with a primed fist, fumed, "Just what are you implying you blonde **bi-.**"

"Yes, yes, I know I'm a bigot." Inez interrupted due to her intolerance for being interrupted, waving Ryoko's unfinished statement off. "Anyway, let's start with Jun's perspective on the current situation. Jun last saw Yukina before he left for Mars on a shuttle through a jump gate this morning, correct?"

"Um, yes." Jun said.

"And then Jun arrived here to not only find that his wife beat him here by a day but that she had a position aboard the _Largesse_ as an enlisted crewman, is that also correct?"

"Yeah, but…"

"And now he is totally confused as to how this happened, is this also correct?"

"I think we've pretty well established that."

"Good, well then let me extrapolate this thought by reminding all of you of some of the time lapse paradoxes we encountered during our first experiences with boson jumping …"

Still munching on cookies, Amy asked Yurika in a whispered voice, "Is she always so…err… _thorough_?"

Yurika sighed, "Unfortunately, yes."

"Please, just shoot me now."

"Don't worry Commander, you get used to it after a while."

"I'm not sure I want to."

Meanwhile, Inez was still lecturing, "…so, in order to give us an extra day's grace, Yukina and I actually jumped here together yesterday from later today-."

"Excuse me, Ms. Fressange," Ruri interrupted, "but it might be better for Jun if we just let Yukina explain _why_ she is here to him first. You can tell him _how_ she got here, later."

"Well, fine then." She was testy after having her explanation shafted. "I hope all of you remember what we already covered because I won't go over it again." Relief swept across everyone's faces. "Hmpf, idiots."

Everyone looked to Yukina to continue the explanation but she said nothing. She just kept her back to Jun. "Now Yukina, darling," Minato had ended her argument with Goat to perform her role as Yukina's adopted mother, "you know nothing is going to be resolved unless you talk to him."

"We talk all the time and, strangely, nothing ever seems to be resolved between us." Goat remained content on having no sense of tact.

"Don't undermine me in front of my daughter!"

"SHUT UP BOTH OF YOU!" Yukina shouted. "I don't have to explain my decisions to ANYONE!" With tears in her eyes, she walked towards the lift. "I'll be in my room if anyone needs me." Then she disappeared up the elevator.

Jun began to scramble for the elevator when he heard a familiar voice say, "Well it seems like you're having your fair share of women troubles this time around Jun. Heh! Heh!"

Jun immediately recognized that old, scratchy voice and turned to find Seiya Uribatake laughing behind him. Before he could get an angry reply out, Jun was shocked at what he saw Seiya wearing. It was a rust-red robe that covered his normal engineer uniform and gear and was trimmed in black. The black and white logo it bore was a half human, half Aesty skull enclosed in a metal gear head. He also seemed to be carrying a rather heavy pack on his back. Another, smaller individual with an identical outfit said, "These are pretty awesome, huh?"

Still stunned, all he could say was, "What?"

"That's exactly what we said when we first saw those get-ups." Ryoko said, jabbing a thumb in their direction.

"Oh, Jun. This is my son, Juno," Seiya said, pointing to the smaller person beside him. "He's decided to become my apprentice in the art of advanced mechanics and engineering."

With a bright smile, Yurika said, "Isn't it wonderful that Seiya has become a responsible father and given up being lecherous old baboon."

A mechanical arm from the utility pack on Seiya's back promptly yanked out his loud speaker and he yelled at close range to Yurika, "Who are you calling an _old baboon_, WOMAN!" Everyone nearby responded by shielding their ears and shrieking in pain.

While most of the group was distracted, Jun told Ruri and Haley as they rubbed their ears, "I'll address both of you on our orders later. Right now, I have something important to attend to." And he sprinted for the lift.

Both of the short officers said, "Good luck, sir."

"Sir! Wait!" Amy yelled. "We need to set up your office and prepare tomorrow's briefing as soon as possible!"

"Please start on it without me!" he yelled back. "I'll join you as soon as I'm done!" Then he disappeared up the lift as well.

Frustrated beyond comprehension, she clenched her fists so hard that her arms began to tremble from it. "Damn that woman," she muttered, "always making my admiral chase after her!" She left with fire in her eyes as she set off to fulfill her duties. One last pang of jealousy streamed through her. "And I know he'll never get back to me in time."


	4. Chapter 3 'revised'

**A Troubled Generation**

Making his usual rounds on night patrol, Ensign Joey Neumann and his Aestivalis maneuvered over his sleepy little town on the young colony of Harmony IV. It was a quiet and peaceful colony, far removed from the crowded clusters of colonies near Earth. The entire colony had fewer than five hundred thousand residents, most of whom were farmers or ranchers. The vast plains made it an ideal agricultural planet.

Despite its small size and relative youth, it had the rare commodity of a fully functional space port. Complete with a military picket fleet and Aestivalis squadrons. That was where he chose his line of work rather than grow crops the rest of his life. He made his worthwhile contribution patrolling the skies and rooting out the occasional bandit group.

The young pilot slowed his mech down in an attempt to view his home. A holo-screen appeared beside him, containing the image he sought. There was his family standing in front of their home, his eight year old son and five year old daughter waving excitedly up at him, with his wife watching over them. Though the image was soundless and unclear, he felt as if he could hear his children calling out to him as he passed overhead, and see the warm smile his wife always gave him when they were together.

Just to show off, he shot into the air at maximum thrust, performing various stunts and acrobatic maneuvers. He hoped his children got a kick out of it. He couldn't wait until tomorrow to find out.

When he finished, he settled in the night sky, alone with stars and the crystal moon. The peace of solitude was strangely comforting, he thought. Normally he liked working as a team with the other pilots. But, something felt different about them now. They acted strangely, and spoke cryptically when he asked about it. There was a constant look of contempt and paranoia in their eyes when he approached. Even some of the other military personnel and town folk had exhibited these characteristics.

And he believed there was something else there that he hadn't seen since the end of the Jovian/Earth war. He wasn't sure, but he thought he could feel their urge for sheer, unadulterated bloodshed...

A holo-screen from the control tower appeared in front of him. "Ensign Neumann!" A sharp voice yelled out.

"Reporting, Sir!" As he looked into his superiors eyes, he saw the same things he had been seeing from his fellow pilots. It was so strange, _he _hadn't been like them earlier today...

"There is a report of strange activity roughly 756 km northwest of your present position. Since your obviously not doing your job out there, I'm ordering you to go investigate it! I'll send Larson, Malchovich, and Harrison as support, but you'd better not F.U.B.A.R. this assignment. Do you copy!"

Sheesh, he's had quite a falling out today, "Loud and clear, Sir!" As the objective coordinates were fed into his battle computer, Neumann altered his course and shot off into the night.

* * *

"Sheesh!" Hari said as he and Ruri entered their quarters. "Things went even _worse_ than even I dared believe!"

"Then you don't know this crew well enough, Hari." Ruri said in her usual neutral tone. "You have only been with them for _ten_ years."

"After ten years I still don't _want _to know them." He said as he took off his officer's tunic. "Aside from Minato and Yurika, the others just annoy me too much. And on top of that, Ryoko and Mr. Hoary still scare me to death; always acting so macho all the time. Hell, Hikaru and Izumi couldn't even wait ten minutes before attacking Jun and his poor adjutant."

"Even I have to agree that irritates me, as well. But between the cut in pay I'll give them and memories of pain from Amelia should temper them for a while. Although, Jun is going to be having women troubles for a while because of them."

As they changed out of their uniforms, Hari continued, "I still can't believe Yukina didn't give him any clue that she was going to be taking that communications position here. From what I understand of Jun, he and surprises don't mix well. And I thought she wanted out of the navy for good eight years ago after the search for Akito began to drag out."

"All she told me when she jumped here with Inez was that she wanted this to be special for Jun. So I guess she came back because she wanted to be with him."

"All she really did was create more drama for everyone. Well, whatever. It's not something we haven't dealt with before." Now in his 'night' clothes, he was ready to forget about work for the day. "I wonder how Jiro is doing."

"He's still studying the entirety of human-knowledge, most likely."

Hearing that made him worried, "I know he's the son of two walking super computers, but seriously! Studying this much is going to seriously hurt him! Remember how those scientists 'raised' us by shoving all that crap down our throats from our infancy? And how many of us died because of it? This needs to stop, NOW!"

"Calm down, Hari!" The way he said it put Ruri on edge as well. She, too, hated how all the genetically modified children had been manipulated to try and make the perfect humans. Most died from being unable to mix into a socially and intellectually unsanitized environment. She and Haley were the only ones from that generation of 'fairies' that she knew survived. "He won't give up his research. He feels compelled to understand how humans function for some reason. This is why I requested Dr. Inez be attached to us. If anyone can figure out how to help him, she can."

Hari thought about that for a second, "Since Inez does know _everything_ she will be helpful. And her infinitely logical way of thinking will doubtlessly sync well with Jiro. He likes to act like an adult around strangers." After some more thought, he said, "Wait a second! Inez still works for Nergal, right? Just what did they want in return?" Nothing came without a price from Nergal.

Ruri's eyes shifted to the floor, "In return, they get what they've been wanting from us since they learned we'd have a child. We have to let Inez conduct physical, mental, biological, and psychological tests and examinations on him."

"Oh, God!" They'd fought so hard to keep Jiro safe from the life of a test subject. Both of them knew exactly what that was like. Now, it was their only way to possibly save their son from himself.

"Inez promised not to do anything drastic to Jiro, but that doesn't guarantee anything. We'll have to keep a close eye on him."

"What can we do? We're here for him hardly enough as it is. And with an A-class jumper as the pseudo-threat, how can we guarantee his safety? Can we pull Saburota off CIC to be his body guard?"

"I have a feeling we'll need him conducting command-in-control for this assignment. Between the new hardware and weapons we've received, I think we're expecting heavy fighting. But perhaps we can pull him away when we're not engaged."

"I'd just feel better if we had someone to watch over him. I don't think Ms. Fressange will do anything treacherous but there's no telling what else Nergal might try."

"We'll do what we can…" Ruri cut herself short when she noticed five year old Jiro sitting on the bed in front of them.

Nervous that Jiro had been overhearing their conversation, Hari asked, "How long have you been sitting there, Jiro?"

With a bright smile, he said, "Oh, I just got here." Ruri and Haley looked at each other. Their son seemed to appear anywhere at any time without drawing any attention what so ever. And he seemed so pleased with himself for surprising them. He and Ms. Fressange would get along just fine.

"I'm sorry if I interrupted you, but I've wanted to ask you both something for a while now." His parents' tension eased. They were always happy to answer questions for their child. It meant he wasn't drowning himself with independent research. "Where did I come from?"

The question hit them like a sledgehammer. "W-W-W-What?" Hari blustered out. Ruri was simply too shocked to speak. How in hell did he come up with that question?

Jiro laughed, "That wasn't really my question." Still mortified, his parents just stared at him. "And you both reacted just like Saburota said you would. Although I can't think of a reason why it would scare both of you so much."

"Well, at least we know whose pay to cut next." Ruri said, having quickly regained her composure. Haley was still struggling with his. "So what was your real question?"

"Well, looking through man-kind's history, I found that it was full of wars and fighting." This was going to be bad. Though not as bad as the last question. "And the wars are always started by people who want land, resources, money, religious dominance, or revenge. Both of you have been part of war for a long time. Do you know why humans fight and kill each other over such trivial things?"

"Uh… well… That's kind of hard to explain." Haley was struggling to be delicate with this subject. It was bad enough having so much knowledge crammed into his young mind; he really didn't need to concern himself with what war meant at the age of five. "You see, we don't really understand what causes people to fight for stupid reasons. In reality, _starting_ a fight for any reason is idiotic."

"Actually, your father just explained it perfectly without meaning to."

Hari let out a confused, "Huh?"

"Is it that people are idiots?" Jiro inquired.

Ruri laughed at the memories that brought back. Idiot had been her word of choice for nearly everyone until 13 years ago. "No, but it fits just about anybody at certain times. What he said is that we don't understand other people."

"I see where you're going with this now." Hari gathered a few more thoughts, "Most conflicts start because one or more groups can't, or won't, understand each other. If everyone thought the same way and believed the same things, anything could be settled peacefully. However, humans weren't meant to think alike, so it depends on what beliefs they hold to unite or divide them."

"The Successor rebellion that officially ended nine years ago is a good example. Though it is believed that they are still led by Chairwoman Aqua Crimson of the Crimson Conglomerate, it was originally organized by Vise Admiral Haruki Kusakabe of the former Jovian Federation. He was so obsessed with his dream of annihilating the Earth government that forced his ancestors into exile, that he was willing to sabotage the peace talks during the Jovian/Earth war and assassinated his own ambassador to do it.

After escaping punishment for war crimes at the close of the war, he formed the splinter faction known as the Martian Successors and allied himself with the Crimson Corporation to gain power and resources. He abducted and conducted crude and illicit experiments on Class-A boson jumpers to gain a blitzkrieg-like advantage for his forces. That included Captain Yurika and Akito Tenkawa, who we are still searching for today."

"And he did all that because he couldn't accept any other reality than the destruction of Earth?" Jiro was really digging into this view on why wars are fought.

"Yes, and that cost him his life in the end. Between charges of treason, assassination, abduction, sedition, conducting illegal experiments on humans, and other war crimes, and being proven guilty of all charges, he was executed six years ago."

"His highest ranking officers and scientists went to hell right along with him, too."

"Hari! Don't say things like that! Hate is what continues this never ending cycle of death! Do you want to teach that to Jiro?"

"I'm sorry. It just gets under my skin that all that evil was caused by so few. But it's no excuse."

"Don't worry mom. I won't let dad rub off on me."

"Hey!"

"So do you understand what we've told you tonight?"

"Well," Jiro said as he analyzed all his new knowledge, "ignoring the fact that there is no night and day in space..."

"Don't be a smartass, Jiro." Ruri promptly smacked Hari across the face. "OWW!"

Ignoring his parent's actions, Jiro continued, "…Humans fight each other because they all believe different things and refuse to accept other people's ideas. Unless they have a belief or a cause in common to unite them, humanity is doomed to fight itself for eternity. Is that correct?"

"That is a gloomy way to look at it, but yes, you summed it up nicely."

"Okay, that is all I wanted to know." He sprung up from the bed. "Thank you mom! Thank you dad!" Even though he was only five, he was able to hug both of his parents around the waist at the same time. Even given that both Ruri and Haley were naturally small individuals, their son was large for his age; about the size of the average ten year old.

And unlike his parents, Jiro was quite athletic and very active in the ship's gymnasium when he wasn't studying. He was even learning Jovian-style Jujitsu from Saburota. Both Ruri and Haley could sense Jiro was destined for great things. And both of them put an affectionate arm around their son in return. They held that embrace for a few moments until Jiro was ready to pull away. With a beaming smile still on his face, he ran off to his room for the night.

"Golly, how did you give birth to such a titan, hon?" Hari said with a proud smile as he rubbed his side.

"You could call it effort, Hari." He laughed. "But he is a remarkable child though. I wonder what he will become with all of the talents he possesses."

"Something wonderful." Hari said as he embraced Ruri, "He will grow up to be a great and virtuous man."

"I believe you are right." She said with a smile. Then they, too, called it a night.

* * *

As Ensign Neumann drew closer to his target area, he began to see some strange purple light emanating from the planet's vast prairie in the distance. "I wonder if that's the disturbance the commander was talking about?" It didn't take long for him to be right on top of its source.

What he saw was more shocking and appalling than anything he had ever seen before. All the young pilot could screech out was, "The #(%?"

There was a whole mass of people dancing and chanting around a massive, burning pit that had been dug out of the ground. Through the searing, purple-red flames that seemed to just spring from the pit for no obvious reason, it looked as though there was some sort of alter arrayed above it. At the base of the pit, stood a lone man wearing full metallic armor and a helmet of a Gothic style that concealed his entire face. Waving what appeared to be a giant staff, he apparently was the leader of the procession.

Neumann pointed his mech-size auto rifle at the armored man and demanded through his external loud speakers, "Just what the HELL is going on here!" Even as he said that, he began scanning the faces of the people in the crowd. There were some he didn't recognize, particularly those that were armed, but he knew many of them from his own town.

The armored man stopped his own efforts and faced the hovering Aestivalis, offering a sinister laugh in return. In a voice that oozed with guile and cunning, he smoothly replied, "Welcome, Ensign Joey Neumann." The pilot reeled back in shock. The mysterious figure brought a hand up to his heart in a mocking gesture of feeling touched. "Hell, indeed, is going on here. How nice of you to join us for the finale."

The figure raised his staff high above his head to channel dark energies into himself. Runes and strange figures began to appear over his entire body. Fire engulfed the brush surrounding the mob, burning away the camouflage that had concealed dozens of enormous cages buried into the ground. Each contained well in excess of five hundred people.

Much to Neumann's horror, the cages suddenly flew open and the captives inside began to be pulled into the air by the strange powers of the pit and the man who controlled it. The armored figure rose into the air with his captives above the raging inferno below them.

Overcoming his shock, the pilot retrained his weapon on the nightmarish figure. "Let them go NOW before I blow you and your entire damn posy straight to Hell!"

The figure laughed again, "Even if you killed me right now, they would all die anyway." Continuing in his silky tones, the man said, "So let's not be hasty. I'm sure you'll see things my way after I show you your own potential." The man stretched out his hand towards Neumann's cockpit.

Searing pain suddenly shot through his mind as an unknown entity sifted through it. Neumann screamed madly, thrashing about his cockpit. The invisible hand clawed deep into his psyche as it searched for something evil that it might clasp onto and drag out before him. Blood poured out of his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth. But the hand suddenly withdrew, and the pain left as swiftly as it had come.

"How disappointing." The armored man chided. "It seems as though you have nothing that the Dark Gods need. I guess you'll just have to... DIE!"

Getting the blood out of eyes, he saw three friendly blips appear on his radar. "Fat chance, you bastard!" he shouted back confidently, "My back up just arrived!" He was about to take a shot at his tormentor when a high velocity shell hit his distortion field from behind. The bloodied pilot flew forward into his safety harness.

"As you can see, Ensign, it is in fact my back up that has arrived." The formerly white friendlies suddenly turned hostile crimson on his radar. He stared in shock at the ID transponders. They were, in fact, Larson, Malchovich, and Harrison. Why were they shooting at him?

"What's the matter? Too shocked to fight!" Malchovich goaded. Hearing his attacker's words spurred him into action and he dodged as the next heavy round came his way.

Now it was Harrison's turn to mock. "Just give up, and let us kill you. You're the only one left that stands against us." Neumann's eyes opened wide with understanding. It all suddenly made sense. The looks and the strange behavior; it was all because they had been secretly a part of this... this cult! And he was the last unconverted soldier on the planet.

He faced the trio to see exactly what he was up against. They all used the same reconnaissance variant he had. Fast, nimble, and easy on the power usage outside of a fight. But each had brought a heavy weapon to the fight; a laser rifle, a particle cannon, and a 105mm automatic support cannon. He only had a standard issue 45mm auto rifle and his power was down to 50% after that last hit. If he wanted to survive, he would have to get in close.

Larson quipped, "By the way, don't worry about going home tonight." Neumann felt his heart drop like lead. Please no… "We already took care of that for you!" The traitorous trio began laughing hysterically. Now Neumann felt a strong bloodlust begin to boil into suicidal temperatures.

Neumann's charge came without warning. He rammed into Harrison, who had the dangerous particle cannon. He let their distortion fields cancel each other out, a move that drained another 41% of his power, before ramming his rifle upwards into the enemy Aesti's gut. He had the satisfaction of hearing Harrison's last 'Eep!' before two dozen rounds tore into the cockpit and shredded the pilot into fresh hamburger.

Larson returned fire with the laser while Malchovich struggled to regain a lock with the more cumbersome auto cannon. The first energy blast blew through their former comrade's mech as Neumann launched himself away from it and the resulting explosion. However, the explosion destroyed his rifle before he fully cleared the blast.

A compartment opened on the Aesti's right hip and Neumann pulled out his vibro-knife. He barreled in on Larson as he was lining up another shot. With only 5% power remaining, his timing had to be perfect. He didn't have enough power to break the shield but in order for his opponent to fire that laser...

He was within mere meters of his opponent's shield when the blast came. He narrowly managed to avoid losing his entire left arm as the energy beam blew away the armor on the mech's shoulder. As Neumann flew through the opening, his mech's right arm thrust his blade deep down into the enemy's cockpit, crushing Larson instantly. Even as he did that, his left arm swung around behind the now pilotless unit and interfaced with its remaining battery, siphoning the power into his own unit.

Inside Malchovich's cockpit, despite seeing his wing mates torn apart, the maniac was in high spirits. Why shouldn't he be? He had, after all, finally reacquired lock for his favorite piece of artillery. "Die NOW!" he screamed.

Just before the trigger was pulled, with freshly recharged robotic might, Neumann thrust the lifeless machine in his hands directly into his line of fire. Three shells detonated his dead team mate's metal coffin and offered the last sane soldier a place to hide inside the smoke.

Malchovich aimed his weapon in every direction the debris covered. He knew he was vulnerable. His shield had to remain down just to aim his cumbersome weapon. From down low out of the debris, Neumann slammed straight into his opponent and swatted away his remaining enemy's weapon.

Having pinned him down, Neumann pounded relentlessly on Malchovich's cockpit with robotic fists. He tore through the hardened external armor, then through the ceramic composites surrounding the cockpit, and finally through to the prize. He yanked out a screaming and hysterical Malchovich. He squeezed his quarry slightly to shut him up so he could listen.

"Do you really want to see blood spilt tonight?" The man became more panicked.

"Please! Please no!"

"How about we spill YOURS for your god?" Neumann slammed his hand with the captive palm down into the ground with an earth shattering thud. He raised the hand again to find it covered in the man's gore. It made him sick, not just due to the gore, but because of what he had just done to the man. He did what he did out of vengeful anger, and it left a bad after taste in his soul. Even if he was child killing, home burning traitor, he should have killed him quickly like the other two.

He returned his attention to the armored man floating above the flaming pit. His followers continued to dance and chant and the frightened captives continued to float above impending doom. He pointed a robotic finger at the man, "Your next."

Hands behind his back, the figure let out a sigh, "It seems you are more formidable than I believed possible." He placed a hand under the chin of his helmet to show he was pondering possibilities. "I think you've earned the right to see some of the true power of the Warp."

"The Warp?" Neumann asked, not understanding.

The figure simply laughed and unhelpfully said, "Yes, the Warp." He raised his staff high above his head and then struck downward hard towards the pit. As swift as his motion, his victims descended into the devouring flames. Neumann sat speechless as his fellow citizens were sacrificed to a being he couldn't believe existed.

As the last sacrifice was consumed in fire, the pillar of fire collapsed in on itself. Then blood began spewing from the pit. Vast torrents of boiling blood. It flew onto many of the cultists, killing them slowly and painfully. But what emerged was far worse.

The pilot's face went pale. From out of the blood spewing mass came forth a giant demon the very color of the blood it emerged from. It was several times the size of his Aestivalis and had the wings to match. And that enormous battleaxe in its right hand didn't look promising for his health either.

"Ensign, I'd like for you to meet one of the most powerful servants of the Lord of Skulls... the Blood Thirster!" The figure turned to the blood soaked creature. "Destroy that human in the name of our god, Khorne!" The Blood Thirster roared as the name of its deity was evoked, shattering the very heavens with its battle cry and leapt into the air to take flight.

The first thing the now battle hardened pilot did was make a rush for the discarded particle cannon. But the beast was faster than should have been physically possible. Using its latent powers from the Warp, it quickly accelerated itself to an incredible speed, axe ready to strike. Neumann barely had time grab the weapon before he had to dive out of the way again.

The axe devastated the ground where he had just been standing. It was a near miss, but the power of the daemon's attack sent his Aesti spiraling backward. He rose from the ground in time to see the monster lunging towards him at incredible speed.

He desperately willed his machine airborne again but the Blood Thirster was already upon him again. He swung his machine right, narrowly avoiding the daemon's downward thrust but then it turned the attack into a sweeping arc that came back up for Newmann's cockpit. Only his momentum saved him as he franticly leaned away from the blade as it broke his shielding and gouged into his machine's armor.

The pilot loosed three shots into its massive torso but failed to even slow it down as it charged him again at horrifying speed. He ducked under its sideways thrust only receive a powerful kick that sent him crashing into a hillside. Looking up from his mech-sized crater at the unrelenting monstrosity he faced, Ensign Newmann despaired over his chances. How could he possibly beat something this powerful?

Sensing that the battle was almost concluded, the Blood Thirster charged forward again, ready to claim the skull of both the machine and its pilot.

Neumann decided to take one final risk. He overrode the weapon's safety locks and put all his remaining power into one last shot. The beast was overshadowing him now, its axe ready to be brought down upon its kill. Before the axe fell, he fired his last shot directly into its face.

Both the weapon and his unit's hands exploded, jarring the pilot badly inside his cockpit. But the massively overcharged shot had enough force to knock the beast into a backwards flip and hit the ground with a thunderous crash, its great momentum carrying it to the Aestivalis's feet. Smoke rising from its face, it laid motionless on the prairie ground of the once peaceful world of Harmony IV.

Slowly, he came to realize that he had just singlehandedly defeated one of the most powerful creatures in all of hell. In spite of all that had happened, he began to laugh uncontrollably. That the creature had also belonged to an enemy he hadn't even known existed until just over an hour ago made things seem even funnier. "God! What a bunch of PUSSIES!"

As if the word 'pussy' had the power to resurrect daemons, the Blood Thirster's body began to tremble and then set to right itself. Neumann's moment of absurd laughter ended abruptly as it pushed itself off the ground. It turned its face to look at the being that had humiliated it so. All of the flesh in or around the face had been completely vaporized. But its skull had remained completely intact. In fact, it seemed to be made of an incredibly dense metal. No wonder shooting it in the chest had no effect.

Though the flesh had been blown away from its face, Neumann could tell that it was totally pissed now. He got a clue from enraged manner which it reached for its axe. But the flaming eyeballs might have been another good sign.

The young ensign resigned himself to death as the axe rose again. He had lived a good life. He had lived happily with his family until just an hour ago. Even after they were gone, he had personally avenged their murders with the blood of their killers. He had stared down Hell itself and fought with everything he had until the very end. Now was as good a time as any time to die.

"Before you die, Ensign Joey Neumann, I think you deserve to hear my true name." The nightmarish man whispered into his mind. The pilot could care less now, but whatever. The axe came down swiftly. "I am Sorcerer Yoshio-." In that instant, Ensign Joey Neumann was taken from the world.


	5. Chapter 4

**Late Night Amends**

Jun leaned against the door outside Yukina's shared quarters. It was 0134 hours on the ship now. 'How am I going to be able to approach her about this? I really hurt her this time.' The image of tears streaming down her face as she walked onto lift from the hanger consumed his every thought. 'She's probably asleep now, dammit. I should just leave.'

He began to walk away when his conscience panged him again. 'Don't just leave her there, idiot! She needs you now!' Suddenly spurred with renewed purpose, he decided he would just go in there and do what needed to be done.

He used his admiral's master card to open the four bunk living space. He saw Yurika sitting on a bottom bunk, still crying into open palms. The two other girls that evidently shared the room with her looked up from trying to comfort Yukina as the door opened and gave him nasty stares of the 'Come near and die' variety.

Unconcerned with the opinions of women he didn't even know, he returned their gaze with his best 'Go to hell' look. The two other girls muttered some words to Yukina and left the room, giving Jun evil looks as they passed. 'Anger spreads from woman to woman faster than the fracking radionic plague.' Jun thought in irritation. They never seem to leave someone else's business alone.

He walked up to Yukina and began to say, "Yukina, I-."

"What the hell do you want?" She spat out tersely. Jun felt his resolve shattering from the sting of being unwanted by someone he cared about.

"I wanted to apologize to you for how I reacted to seeing you in the hanger today."

"What makes you think I care?"

"You're crying, Hon. Seeing the hurt in your eyes as you left up the elevator has haunted me to this very second. The guilt is tearing me up inside." It wasn't until after he said it that he realized how insincere that sounded.

"LIAR!" As she screamed she seemed to stop crying. But as the burst of anger faded, she slowly broke back down into tears.

"Yukina, please?" the nearly broken man pleaded as he tried to hold her in his arms but she twisted and turned to get loose.

The rejection complete, he finally broke down in despair. "I'm terrible." Jun half muttered, more to himself than to Yukina. "All I ever do is work. I'm never there for you. I always forget my promises to you. I can't even remember we have a date together. And now this. The only thing I ever do for you is cause more pain." Yukina ceased struggling in Jun's weakening arms. "I never did anything to deserve you."

"Liar." Jun looked at her in surprise. "Your kind, submissive, you bend yourself and your schedule as much as possible to meet my needs. You spend every day you get off work with me, like we did last week. And even though you often forget when I ask you do something under the weight of your work, you always regret it sincerely and try harder to remember.

"You have never once said mean, hurtful, or degrading things to me, even when I use them on you. You've never even once raised your voice against me. And you always made me feel like I am wanted and loved… until today." She violently grabbed onto his uniform and pulled herself to his chest, sobbing. "Today I felt like you didn't want me there, that your love for me wasn't first in your heart anymore. Don't you ever DARE make me feel like this again! I'll NEVER forgive you! Never in all eternity."

Tears began to fill his eyes as he saw just how terrible her wounds were. "If I ever let that happen again, I wouldn't be the man you love any longer. I'd hate to see the sort of _beast_ I'd have to be to do that. I'd rather die than make you go through this again." He squeezed her tighter to him and a tear fell from his cheek onto the back her neck. She noticed and looked up at a sight she had never seen before; Jun crying. Not even at Yurika's funeral did he cry. He was a tough soldier.

He was crying because he knew just how much he had hurt her. Amazed at what she was seeing, she forgot her sadness for a moment. She reached up and wiped away his tears. "Jun, if you weren't such an idiot sometimes, you'd be the perfect man."

He didn't quite get out a "What?" before her gentle kiss reached his lips. The feeling of her intimacy and sincerity coursed through him and what seemed like an eternity of bliss went on in his mind even though it only lasted a few seconds. He felt his earlier distress melt away and tears of a different sort welling up in his eyes. Tears streaming down both of their faces, they leaned in for another kiss. "I love you so much."

"Oh, shut up you sap!" Their lips gently made contact again, striving to make the strong feelings coursing through their bodies last. Forgetting everything but each other, they held their kiss for the longest time.

"Can you get another room? Sakura and I would like to sleep now." But the couple couldn't even hear the two other bunk mates. The rest of the universe didn't exist. "Dammit! Maybe Veronica will let us bunk with her tonight.

* * *

It was 0456 when Jun walked into his office/living quarters. He had expected to still see several boxes of personal effects and papers left to be unpacked. But all the boxes were emptied and neatly stacked by the door. All the papers and data chips had been put away in their proper files. His office was set up exactly as he liked it.

Then he saw Amelia asleep at his desk, completely surrounded by the data chips and paperwork necessary for tomorrow's briefing. Had she done all this by herself in just six hours? As he got closer he noticed a considerable amount of drool on the desk. She must have fallen asleep two or three hours ago. In only three hours she did this? She was quite amazing. 'And she drools, too?' Jun laughed. He never would have known she did that. He wouldn't hold that against her, though (even if it was her drool on his desk). It wasn't like they were going to sleep together.

He hung his badge laden jacket on the suit rack and looked back at his adjutant, wondering what he should do about her. He didn't want to wake her from her peaceful rest; she had worked so hard tonight. Besides, she looked cute just lying there...

'Now why did I just think that? Hmpf, that's strange.' He looked back at Amelia. This was a side of her he had never seen before. He'd never seen her so at peace. It suited her very well. "I'm sorry I couldn't let you have more tonight, Amy." He silently whispered to her.

Confident of his decision to let her sleep, he looked for a way to lift her up and carry her over to the sofa without waking her. Tenderly and cautiously, he leaned her head against his shoulder and wrapped an arm around her waist and legs. Slowly, he transferred her weight from the chair to himself. She felt nice...

'Crap! This is going to be more challenging and awkward than I thought.'

With her securely in his arms, he carried her over to the sofa. Half way there, she began shifting in his arms. He became worried that he had disturbed her sleep. Sleepily, she muttered, "Uhhmm, Jun," and snuggled her head instinctively against his shoulder in order to get more comfortable. His body flowed with the pleasing feeling. 'Stop that!' He mentally yelled at his impulses. Jun sighed in relief that was all she did when he finally reached the couch.

It was small by planet-side standards but large enough for his purposes. It was the perfect size to lay her on. 'Lay her DOWN on! Lay her DOWN on! Man, what the hell is with me today?' He managed to set her down gently and rested her head on a soft cushion. He then found a blanket and covered her up. She tossed back and forth some from being moved from Jun's warm body to the cold sofa but eventually rested again.

He took one last look at the peaceful face he never seen before tonight and said, "Good night, Amy." and walked over to his desk. After wiping up his adjutant's slobber from his desk, he thought to check himself too. Sure enough, there was a moist spot on his shirt where Amelia's head had been. He thought about changing shirts, but then changed his mind. There was something to the novelty of being drooled over by his favorite officer. "What a strange night this has been."

He picked up where Amelia had left off on the paper work. She had already prepared a third of it. He looked up at the couch where she slept. 'I so sorry I made you work so hard for me tonight.' He thought to himself. 'Finishing it is the least I can do to repay your dedication.'

A strange thought struck his tired brain. Amelia had called him Jun. She _never_ referred to him by his first name. It was always 'Admiral, Sir!', or 'Admiral Aoi, Sir!', or just plain 'Sir!' She had never said anything remotely intimate to him before.

Tonight had highlighted to him just how little he really knew about her. She was so tightly wrapped in military formality for him to possibly know anything about her. There were so many things he couldn't explain; all the way back to her transfer request from her own promising command of a frigate over to serve under him all the way up to her assault on Hikaru in the hanger yesterday. Was she hiding something from him?

He tried to shrug off the thought, "I'm just imagining all that nonsense." She _was _asleep when she said that, after all. "I really need to get some sleep, myself," then went back to work.

An hour later, while still working at his dimly lit desk, a tiny emergency message screen appeared over his existing work. He noticed the message with silent grumble, his annoyance spurred on from lack of sleep.

With touch of his finger, the screen expanded to show the full size of its contents. Jun was surprised to find it written in official fleet encrypted text instead of the usual 'live-feed' message that came with an emergency.

Using his nanobot Image Feedback System implant to input his identity and Class Gamma authorization code, the characters immediately began to shift places and change values across the entire document, turning gibberish into a coherent message. And its header was enough to cause his fists to clench.

'_Contingency 'Havoc' Enacted'_, words he desperately didn't want to see. Something had just gone horribly wrong. In spite of his urge to simply delete it and pretend he never received the thing, his sense of duty pushed him into reading beyond the title. Clenching his fists tighter and tighter after each line, going over every detail Supreme Command had for activating the worse-case scenario contingency.

There was a lot of fluff and insignificant details that attempted to marginalize the seriousness of the danger detailed on his screen, but the reality still hit Jun like a hammer. Gemini, Trevor, Germania, Darwin, and Harmony; five colonies lost in less than a week's time. The enemy's capabilities seemed to far exceed even the most pessimistic estimates. Their advance had moved from twice the original projection to over three times the original.

But that wasn't what disturbed Jun the most.

The most shocking figures came from their estimated losses. They were very, _very_ low, under two percent, in fact… because over 98 percent of all military personnel from all five systems defected over to the enemy before simply handing the planets over to their new masters. And intelligence believed over 70 percent of the civilian had joined the interstellar anarchy, as well.

If all of that wasn't bad enough, the final reason for activating the contingency was worse. If the pattern of conquests continued, their next target would be the industrial planet of Nexus Prime. It was the most densely populated planet on the frontier, with over a billion colonists and sprawling ship yards, naval and civilian alike. There were well over a hundred warships present at all times, either in orbit or patrolling the outskirts of the system.

But it earned its name for its most important asset; Nergal determined it was the most stable site in the sector to install a jump gate system. The jump gates allowed travelling ships to enter a gate from an entirely different star system and arrive almost instantaneously at their destination, as long as it too had a jump gate present.

If the cultists got their hands on a jump gate, they could infiltrate their agents into the most important settlements in human space. Or they could attack anywhere deep into Earth-held territory without warning.

In short, they would be near impossible to stop.

* * *

Amelia awoke in daze to the smell of freshly brewed coffee. Her head felt like it was spinning. She had a vague feeling like she had been doing something important but couldn't remember what it was. All she could remember was the strangely good dream she had.

She had been a crewman on a 'wet' navy ship back on Earth when she was suddenly pushed overboard by some unknown person with a mocking laugh. She was drowning; drowning in a vast empty ocean. Then she was suddenly pulled out onto another ship and carried away by strong, gentle arms. She couldn't see her rescuer's face, but she could hear his voice, saying, "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry," over and over again. She recognized the voice as Jun's…

She shot upright as she finally remembered, "The BRIEFING!" She hadn't fallen asleep on the job, had she? The briefing notes and diagrams still needed to be finished and what the hell time was it and I can't let him see me like this…

She took notice of the couch and the blanket she had been sleeping on. Jun must have come back during the night and moved her while she slept. Her heart sank quickly, fearing what her superior must think of her now. She worked so hard to never fail him at anything and help as much as humanly possible. Now that was all shattered.

Then she remembered the dream…

"Well good morning, Sleeping Beauty." Jun's mildly playful tone penetrated her cranium. Her face flared up when she turned face him. He was in a fresh uniform, his short silky-black hair still wet from a recent shower, and was pouring himself a cup of black mocha. The dark bags under his eyes said that he clearly needed it. Yet his face still bore a gentle smile.

"J-J-Jun, Sir! I-I-I-I… I can exp…"

"Don't worry about a thing, Amelia." She looked up at him in shock. Wasn't he mad, angry, or anything? "I finished things up for us."

"But I failed…"

"The failure was mine, Amelia. You did everything you could. I shouldn't have made you wait so long for me." Her emotions were so mixed up now. Was she relieved or depressed? Should she cry or feel embarrassed? Jun continued, "Besides, I didn't actually come in until just before 0500."

"0500!?" She exclaimed. "Just what were you doing before then?!"

Jun gave her an inquiring look, "Do you really want me to tell you?"

The Lt. Commander's cheeks reddened again as she took the hint, "Err… No, not really, sir." He laughed after getting the desired reaction. "So…um… I guess things are all settled between you two, huh?"

"More or less. She has decided to forgive me for the time being, anyway."

"She's such a cold woman," Amy spat out.

Hearing this surprised him. Amy never spoke so openly about his wife. Rising to his loved one's defense, his tone became deathly serious, "Now that's not true, Lt. Commander." The young officer quickly noted his change in tone and the switch from informal to formal address. "She's just very emotional. And ever since her brother died from an assassin's bullet in front of her very eyes, she jealously guards her emotional attachments." Amy eyes opened wide. She had no idea…

"That's why she got so worked up yesterday. She felt like I was choosing my work over her and that I didn't want her to be part of it."

"Oh... I see..."

Jun heaved a sigh, "I'm glad you understand now, Amelia. I know you don't think much of her right now but I truly hope you can come to know her better." With a chuckle, he added, "After all, it wouldn't be healthy for me to have the two most important women in my life at each others' throats during this deployment."

He looked up and saw that she was blushing, "Sorry, Amelia...err... Lt. Commander, I guess that didn't come out quite right."

"Oh... umm-uhh... Don't worry about it, Sir. And... Uhh..." Amy's blush grew redder, "...you can call me Amy, Sir. It's alright with me."

Jun was surprised, "Are you sure?" She nodded. "Well alright then, Amy, the first thing I'll ask you to do is to stop calling me 'Sir' and just call me Jun."

Her discomfort at the thought was clearly visible. "It's alright, Amy. You don't have to if you don't want to. But will you let me be your friend and your superior at the same time?"

She thought about it for several moments, unsure. As a warm feeling of happiness washed over her, she looked him in the eye with a smile, "I would like that very much, Jun."

So she's finally opening up... "I'm glad to hear it, Amy." He prepared a second coffee mug and offered her the drink. "I hope you don't mind your coffee black, today."

She took the coffee and sipped on it eagerly. Revitalized by the caffeine, her brain shifted back to their work. "How much longer do we have before the briefing, Jun."

"Roughly two hours. Normally I would have liked to go over the briefing notes with you once or twice. But since you did the entire data gathering and organizing, I'm confident you already know most of it. Hell, you always know more than I do, anyway." Amy laughed at his honest admission. She could never figure out how such a fine officer could have no ego.

To himself he thought, 'You know everything, except for that little tid-bit I received last night. I don't want to ruin her morning any further with that sickening bit of news. Not just yet.'

"So while I try to learn a few more details, you can freshen up." She gave him a strange look. "No offence, but if you go in looking like that, everyone will know you spent the night on my couch." He didn't really think the others would figure_** that**_ just by her appearance, but an extra layer of urgency never hurt.

Panic swept across her face. "Oh, shhh-crap!" She stumbled over her words as she tried to regain her composure. "I'd better go right away!" The potential fallout from this was catastrophic. And if those two pilots find out... Oh! This is really, _really_ bad!

"Don't worry, Amy." Jun said reassuringly, "Your room is straight across the hall. You don't have to go very far. And not many people come down this hallway anyway."

Jun's words helped calm her, "Well, alright." She pulled herself off the sofa and walked silently to the door. "I'll see you at the briefing, Jun." She cautiously checked both ends of the hallway before making a dash across to her quarters.


	6. Chapter 5

**Marching Orders**

**A/N:** **Alright, another chapter is finally com****ing out ('Curses writer's block****'). If things go as planned, this should be the last of my 'establishment' chapters.**

**Enjoy and R/R!

* * *

**

Jun and Amelia stood at the head of the _Largesse_'s massive briefing room. Naturally attending were Commodore Ruri and Captain Haley and their command crew. While Captain Yurika and every other ship captain in the squadron were present, they left their officers behind to run their ships. But their executive officers entitled themselves to attend via the holo-screens hovering above everyone's heads. Commander Ryoko, chief of Aestivalis Operations, and her squadron leaders, First Lieutenants Hikaru, Izumi, and a green officer named Tori Long also sat in to hear what their mysterious new orders would be. Chief of Security Goat Hoary was on hand to see how the new assignment would affect his own job.

Of course, as was Nadesico tradition, the entirety of the squadron was allowed listen in over a one way channel. Their commanders knew what it was like for superiors to lie to the rank and file crewmen. They would allow none of that here.

The mood in the room was light. Refreshments had already been served and everyone was taking the opportunity to gossip and give their opinions on various issues.

Using his IFS implant to connect to Omoikane Prime, the squadron's core master computer on the ND-1483 _Largesse_, Jun dimmed the lights down to a twilight level in order to get everyone's attention. The attendees' faces were lit only by the blue glow of the holo-table. Omoikane Prime's signature 'OK' message gave him the signal that it had everything ready for the Admiral's briefing.

"Alright, everyone," Jun began when he had everyone focused. "I'm sure you're all wondering why we pulled the squadron off the anti-piracy operations in the asteroid belt..."

"Damn RIGHT!" Ryoko yelled furiously as she jumped to her feet, leaning over the table just a little too close to Lt. Tori. These days, she liked nothing better than cracking the skulls of her enemies.

"Commander, please sit down and let Admiral Jun finish." Ruri's neutral voice ordered.

With a sly grin, the blonde haired Saburota remarked, "Oh, don't worry about it Ma'am. She's just desperate for some action."

"In bed, maybe." Izumi quickly added, to which both Hikaru and herself began to laugh uncontrollably. Ryoko's face transformed from a look of ferociousness to embarrassed disgust as the rest of her body tensed up. It put the shy and young Tori in the awkward position of having his CO's cleavage too close to his face. Everyone else in the room, and on screen, just rolled their eyes. This was way too old to be funny anymore.

In between sputtered laughs, Hikaru managed to squeeze out, "Maybe you should help her out with that, Saburota." Ryoko's face flared up.

He shrugged his shoulders. "Only if she was finally ready for it." The blonde tactical operations officer calmly retorted.

Ryoko glared at him with a venomous look. "The only help I'd ever want from you is sending you on a one-way trip to the afterlife." She turned to her mischievous subordinates, "And as for you two Hell-spawn..." She was cut off abruptly as a fist slammed onto the briefing table.

"Dammit, you four!" A booming voice roared. "We are trying to have a briefing here!" It was Captain James Howell of the squadron's second battleship, _Blue Bonnet_. He was a big, brown haired, Anglo-American that seemed out of place in the almost frilly officer's uniform and was not much to look at. He was renowned for his aggression on the battlefield and a temper even shorter than Ryoko's. He was anxious to get back to the fighting and wasn't about to let four mere 'mech-jocks' delay him from it!

"Well _'Pardon me_', sir!" Ryoko threw back angrily.

"You'd better pardon yourself, _Commander_!" Howell yelled back, laying emphasis on their difference in rank, as he jabbed a finger her direction.

"Ehem," Jun interrupted before anymore words could be fired in anger, "I would greatly appreciate it if all of you would consider your little discussion closed..." He added in a much darker tone, "indefinitely." It let everyone know his request was, in fact, an order and wasn't about to be trifled with over it.

Captain Howell and Commander Ryoko grudgingly retook their seats, much to Tori's disappointment, sending one last glare across to each other the let the other know that this wasn't over yet. But they remained silent. Amy suppressed a proud smile.

"To avoid any further interruptions, I'll cut straight to the chase." He paused to make sure he had everyone's full attention once again. "I know this new assignment will be of interest to many of you." He had hoped to wait until later in the briefing to bring this up but now he was committed. "High Command has decided, in light of recent events, it was in Humanity's best interest to relaunch Operation Fallen Savior."

As he'd expected, he got many gasps and shocked looks. Frantic discussion erupted among the officers. But for those who had known Akito best; their reactions were far more varied.

Ryoko had sprung out of her seat again; face flush. The two other female pilots rose to talk excitedly to their CO.

Goat just nodded, obviously informed ahead of time by Nergal.

Yurika had nearly fainted weakly against the back of her chair, the hope in her heart blazing a trail of emotions through her. Her exec/shrink was watching closely over her from his holo-screen.

Ruri was maintaining her facade of calm but her golden eyes were aflame with a long suppressed longing for the man who had become her father, her protector, the one she had first fallen in love with. Haley, fortunately, was too busy gagging on a piece of the rice cracker he had been eating to notice.

The only exception was a grimacing Captain Howell, who made some scoffing sounds and muttered something about wasting time. Unlike much of the senior crew members, he had never met Akito during or after the Jovian/Earth War. Because of this, he didn't care about the guy one way or another. Unless, of course, he could make a target out him.

"That's right, people." Jun's voice brought everyone back into silence. He had their interest now. "We're going to bring Akito Tenkawa back home this time..." his gaze scanned the all faces in the room, making eye contact with everyone, "Whether he likes it or not."

Jun paused, waiting to see if anyone had something to add. But no one else in the room knew quite what to say. So he continued, "Though none of you said it, I know some of you are thinking, 'Why did they suddenly change their minds?'

"I know that it has been more than a year since the search was called off. The Admiralty had told all of you that the reason was that they had lost track of his ship and simply did not wish to waste your badly needed expertise in a hopeless effort to find one mere rogue. There was no closure and no real explanation. But the truth of the matter is..." He paused to take a deep breath; the moment he dreaded had finally come, "The truth is that the UEAF has known his true location over that entire span of time."

For a few, painfully slow seconds, there was absolute silence. Then the flood waters held back by the dam of shock broke loose. But among all the disgruntled figures, only one spoke.

"You mean _you_ _lied_ to us." The biting remark hit Jun's conscience hard. But it was infinitely worse coming from its unexpected source.

Ruri slowly rose from her chair, her anger deathly sketched across her face, the fire of betrayal burning in her eyes. It was everything Jun had feared and more. He could feel years of hard won trust simply dissolve into nothing in those blazing golden eyes.

"You lied to us," she began again as she leaned in against the briefing table, a death grip on its edge, "For an entire _year_!" She looked him straight in the eyes in such a way that Jun couldn't look away. He felt as if he couldn't breathe.

With his fixation firmly on her, she gave her simple demand, "Why?!" Tears began to well up in her eyes. "Why," she repeated in voice the carried more pain than anger, "I thought we could trust you, of all people, Jun. I thought I could trust you." With few sobs, she fell back into her chair and began to cry. Jun was left too stunned to give any kind of response except to release the breath he'd been holding in.

But Hari reacted immediately and began trying to comfort his wife while throwing a hateful look to Jun. Everyone else in attendance, with the exception of Goat Hory, turned baleful glares Jun's way for distressing their beloved commander. Even Captain Howell, who thought this whole thing was beyond stupid, was furious. It broke every moral code he had to make a girl cry like that.

But the way Yurika, his long time friend, looked at him made him feel, by far, the worst. Still crying from her own feelings of betrayal, her teary, pained eyes demanded to know why he would do something so terrible to dear Ruri. He was feeling less and less like the officer he had come here as and more like some jerk bastard.

From the moment he had been assigned to this mission, he knew things were going to go badly during this briefing. He had expected the resentment and misunderstanding about his role in keeping them misinformed about Akito. But he could have worked through that. He possibly could have made them actually understand the facts about why he had done it, too.

That they simply would not have survived going after him before now.

However, he had not anticipated that coming clean with the truth would have impacted Ruri so hard. In fact, he had counted a lot on her support and maturity through this. It took a _hell_ of a lot to make her angry and even more to bring her to tears.

But he had managed to do it, and now it was unlikely anyone would listen to him until Ruri forgave him.

Despite the intangible distance she seemed to put between herself and other people, those that served with her were drawn to her natural charisma and internal strength. It was an invisible bond of devotion and loyalty that was difficult to match even among the crew of the _Nadesico__-A_. Anyone that dared harm her, whether physically, verbally, mentally, or spiritually, was beneath the contempt of those under her command.

He didn't see himself being forgiven anytime soon either. It reminded him of a story Minato had told him, despite his repeated protests, several years back about Ruri and Haley well before they were close to being married.

* * *

Back then, Hari was still in the 'friend zone' with Ruri, much to his boyish frustration. When a certain starship captain managed to score a date with his dream girl, he nearly lost his mind.

During the date, he 'covertly' did everything in his power to sabotage it. Putting synthetic corpse odor in the flowers, bribing the cooks to ruin the guy's meal, 'displacing' the captain's wallet so he couldn't pay for the dinner. It was quite an extravagant effort.

All of which backfired; since the entire operation did _not_ go unnoticed by Ruri. Especially the food; the cooks accidently ruined the wrong meal.

She was so furious with Hari that she asked the man to take her out again the next day. While Hari was confined to quarters under armed guard on some trumped up computer violation, of course. Afterwards, she just coldly ignored him and stripped him of any chance to apologize by leaving the security system instructions that Hari was to come no closer to her than fifty meters. This also prevented him from even reporting to his station on the bridge, stacking huge penalties and pay deductions on him.

She let him stew in his own guilt like that for nearly six weeks before lifting the security protocol and ordering him into her office/quarters. When he arrived, she made him stand at ridged attention in utter silence for several minutes while she coldly stared him down from behind her desk, daring him to so much as flinch.

When he looked like he was about to burst from the tension, she finally spoke without a trace of emotion in her voice, "So, do you have anything you would like to say?"

He opened his mouth to say the profound apology he had been working on over the last six weeks but nothing would come out. He was so nervous and scared that his brain locked up. His anxiety rose sharply, "Uhhh… I'm…ahh…I'm sorry I…" abruptly breaking eye contact with Ruri as he struggled to jumble something coherent together.

That simple, unintentional act was enough to boil her anger from calculated indignation to brash rage. She rose sharply from her desk, marched swiftly within in inches of Hari and slapped him with every ounce of enraged strength she could muster, knocking him into a jarring 90 degree turn. "Don't say _anything_ to me unless you can look me straight in the eyes!"

Unable to bear the burden of looking her direction again, Hari's eyes filled with tears. He dropped weakly to knees curled himself into a fetal position; fearing that he had lost the most precious thing in his life. His entire body trembled from both fear and the despairing sobs, tears streaming down his face. In between sobs, he stammered out, "I'm sorry, Ruri! I'm really sorry! Forgive me! I just wanted… just wanted for you to…" His last words faded out as his despair overcame him, all the while thinking, '_ShehatesmeShehatesmeShehatesme…'_

His pleas finally snapped her out of the 'frightening orgy of rage', as Minato put it, bringing her to her senses. Looking down at the pathetic sight, watching him wail loudly as he always did when he cried, Ruri's compassionate side cringed. 'Here he is, probably thinking his world is about to end, crying his heart and soul out at my feet. Is this what I really wanted?'

No longer clouded by hate, she viewed all the things she had done since Hari's attempt at mischief. And it all made her feel sick inside. The person she considered to be her little brother had every right to expect better treatment from her. It all could have ended if she had just let him apologize all those days ago. He had tried to reach out to her so many times. Instead, she just chased him away.

And all of it over something as stupid as a date with a guy she didn't even like. She only accepted the invitation to be polite as well as stop the tide of offers to dinner with him. Although he was polite and somewhat charming, the whole thing was kind of disturbing and annoying all in one sitting. So why had she reacted so harshly to Hari's interference?

Even the aforementioned captain only laughed when she told him about what had happened. He claimed it as proof she was worth fighting for. Should she have been flattered instead of angry?

Confused as she was, she knew two things were certain. What she had done to Hari was utterly wrong. That this had to be the single stupidest thing she had ever done in her life. Topping even that ridiculous 'Get to Know the Nadesico' program Dr. Fressange had insisted on doing way back on the _Nadesico-A_.

She fell to her knees beside Hari, cradling him in her arms as best she could with him in his current position. Her voice almost the perfection of meekness, she said, "You don't have to apologize to me anymore, Hari. _I'm_ the one who owes you an apology for dragging this stupid thing out so long. Will you please forgive me, Hari?" She did her best to put her sincerity in every word she spoke.

He raised his tear-stained face to look at her in surprise, as if he didn't know how to respond. Then he surprised Ruri by embracing her tightly, crying with renewed vigor into her shoulder the way a man does when he feels he is saved from the brink of utter destruction, now assured his world would continue to exist.

She returned his vigorous embrace and massaged the back of his neck with the smoothness of her cheek hoping to soothe him out of his misery. But as she took the pain from Hari onto herself, the immense weight of guilt made its presence felt. Her rash and harsh actions had only brought more pain, not only to herself but also to Hari. She had deliberately hurt someone that she cared about like family.

They were both from the same generation of genetically enhanced wunderkind, but they were far from kindred spirits. Hari was almost a complete antithesis to Ruri. Where Ruri was almost always calm and collected; Hari wore his emotions on his sleeves. When problems came up, away from a computer or a starship, he was clueless when Ruri was resolute. They could see the same thing at different levels; take different approaches to the same end.

But it was those differences that drew them together. Each brought strengths and ideas that the other one lacked. He was the ying to her yang. They were stronger together than they were apart; a team that was made stronger still by their common abilities and computerized synchronization. That was why she had become closer to him than she had with anyone else after she believed her adopted parents had died.

So why had she sent so much hostility towards someone so important to her?

Ruri left her thoughts as she suddenly realized she was crying, too. Why was she crying? She wryly thought both of them must look like such idiots, making a fuss over nothing. But she felt relieved, in a way, as the tears streamed down her beautiful face. It was as if each small droplet carried a piece of the great burden from her.

They had spent most of that evening like that, weeping in each other's arms, and making brief apologies before crying some more. The evening officially ended as they prepared to part ways for the night, however Ruri kissed Hari innocently on his cheek before he opened the door.

Both of the young officers flushed bright red, since neither had expected it to happen. Although their embarrassment increased sharply when they caught the ever nosy Minato giggling outside the door, it was at that moment that their relationship began to change.

* * *

Things had turned out for the better between those two, obviously, because of that whole affair. But Jun did not have weeks, or even days, to wait on Ruri's forgiveness before getting the squadron briefed and mobilized. Nor did he have time to cry an ocean of tears with her to smooth things over. The clock was ticking and time was running short.

Though Ruri was still crying on Hari's shoulder, he knew time was of the essence. He was going to make them understand that. He would tell them everything, even the classified information the Admiralty and Nergal wanted them to find out only after 'due time'.

In a solemn tone, Jun continued his briefing, "Yes, it's true I lied to all of you about Akito. And I'm sorry for all the pain that has caused you." Howell scoffed, again, at that statement. "But it is also true that he has been beyond our reach until now."

From her chair, Ryoko snarled, "Like hell he was!"

Ignoring the brash pilot's attitude as he always did, he played his first card, "I trust all of you know about the large Quarantine Zone to the galactic northeast." He received many impatient nods. "Over the last year, he has remained in and round that area."

"That doesn't explain why you lied to us!" It was Yurika this time.

"Do any of you even realize why we named that area the Quarantine Zone?" He was confident Ruri and Hari knew, given their natural ability to gather and access information, but Ruri was just beginning to dry her tears while Hari lent his support. Of the others, he couldn't be too confident that they read every update UE Spacey sent them. Many looked unsure.

The red-headed Hikaru spoke first, "Well, it sounds like there might be something dangerous out there." No, really?

Arms folded across her chest, Ryoko regarded the question with her usual amount of pessimism. "Or that they're just hiding something out there that they don't want anyone to know about," said the irritated Aesti squadron commander. She shifted her pointed gaze at the admiral. "Am I right?"

Jun nodded at the two female pilots, "You are both correct, to a degree." Both looked surprised at the acknowledgement.

"Lt. Commander Tucker will now address all of you on the Quarantine Zone and the problems posed to us by it." He gave Amy her queue to begin her portion of the briefing.

In a formal military voice she began, "Thank you, Sir." The holo-table promptly brought up a detailed map of the explored galaxy, filling the room with light. A single star began blipping in the center of the plot. "This, as I am sure all of you recognize, is our current location, Sol." Everyone in the room nodded. A large flashing cube then enveloped a sizable chunk of the star map on its far frontier. "And this is the region known as the Quarantine Zone." A brief moment of awe overtook the officers as they began to grasp its scope.

With a wave of her hand, her IFS signaled for the plot to zoom in to the full view of the Zone. The new view made clear the many star systems and other galactic debris inside it. But the most prevalent feature was the swirling mass of energy that nearly enveloped the entire area. "This feature, here," Amy said as she highlighted it, "is the reason the Quarantine Zone was created. It is called the Boson Particle Vortex."

"A Boson Particle _Vortex_?"

"Yes, there are enormous quantities the 'Retrospect' jump particles present and many other forms of energy as well."

"So then it's just a glorified jump gate?" Howell asked.

With an expression of deep focus, Yurika added, "That would make sense, if Akito chose to remain there. With all of that energy he could jump his ship anywhere in the galaxy without breaking a sweat." Sadness filled her eyes as she remembered all of those fruitless years trying to catch Akito, "It fits his M.O. for choosing a base of operations too seamlessly. He can move without being noticed and we would have no way to track his movements."

"What Captain Tenkawa says is certainly possible. Even though his ship has remained within tracking range of our stealth probes outside the vortex, he could just as easily jump himself or his Aestivalis without drawing attention.

"But the Vortex is vastly different from our concept of a jump gate. Where our gates are controlled by the Martian Artifact to create a stable transition through 'boson space', the entire Vortex is extremely unstable. It earns its name for drawing all that energy, and any matter caught in the 'currents' on its exterior, down into a single point, like a funnel, where it seems to just… disappear. Those external walls will shred any ship, no matter how powerful its shields, and are next to impossible to penetrate.

"And though the interior is far less turbulent, it is equally dangerous. Huge pockets of jump particles build up and, according to our estimates, can send matter to any point in time or space. There were even scattered relays from some of the recon and drone ships we sent in of being assaulted by 'anomalous sentience vectors'." Amy shrugged her shoulders, "Whatever the hell that means."

"Then how have Akito and his sidekick survived in there for so long?" Asked an executive officer from one of the escorting frigates.

"We aren't precisely sure how, either. Our best guess is that the powerful distortion field equipped on his ship, the _Corvette Eucharis_, has protected them this entire time. And those two are a formidable pair. They could probably handle any situation that arose in the Vortex."

"If his _twelve_ year old ship could stand up to that place," Commander Subaru, sensing another conspiracy, resentfully demanded, "then why didn't you send us in with our newer ships years ago!" Izumi mockingly shook her head in a gesture of hopelessness.

"Did you listen to _any_ of the tech-briefings we've been through over the years, Ryoko?" The mecha commander felt a sudden knot in her stomach, realizing she had forgotten something obvious.

Hikaru added to her embarrassment by saying, "I thought you of all people would know design specs of Akito's ship." Yurika actually took mild offence to that statement; Akito was _her_ husband after all.

The blonde CIC officer, sensing another opportunity to poke at Ryoko, gave his own twist on her situation, "I think we all understand that she isn't so much interested in the equipment than the man. At least not _all_ of his equipment, anyway."

"Oh!" Both of the other women, playing along with Saburota's jab, sent Ryoko suspecting glares. "Is that right?" Ryoko quietly sat down, her embarrassment so complete she couldn't even flay the blonde officer like she normally would have.

Yurika, impatiently tapping her fingers on the table, frustratedly asked, "Are all of done throwing around innuendo for one day? We're supposed to be finding ways to save Akito, not," shifting her challenging gaze to Ryoko, "finding out who wants to… get to him the most." 'And that person is me,' came implied. While the Izumi, Hikaru, and Saburota shifted in their suddenly uncomfortable seats, Ryoko forgot her embarrassment long enough to return the captain's gaze levelly.

"Ehh-heemm! We seem to have gotten off track again," Jun noted with vast understatement. With great effort, everyone returned to the business at hand. "Amy, please resume the briefing."

More astounded than ever due to the little exchange the navy would call 'conduct unbecoming of an officer'; she took a moment to snap back to her task, "Err… Right!" She had no idea of the 'what or why' for what just happened, but she hoped it remained irrelevant. "To quickly answer the commander's question about Akito's starship…"

The projection of the Quarantine Zone collapsed into itself to be replaced by an image everyone present was familiar with. The sleek, graceful lines of _Corvette Eucharis_ only hinted at its lethal finesse. The 'White Dagger', as some of the enlisted men liked to call it for its sharp, pointed design, was a far cry to the bulkier and, until recently, inferior ships UE Spacey liked to put out.

"The _Eucharis_ is of the same tonnage as the average Spacey battle cruiser. But the ship was designed for a capacity of no more than _ten_ people should more than the single operator become necessary. An operator that is genetically engineered to handle all of the ships systems, combat drones, and assess battle space conditions. Much like the Commodore and the Captain.

"This means that all that space that would have been used for the crew is now stuffed with extra sensors, computers, weapon systems, and a significantly larger and more powerful field generator. Those capabilities haven't been matched in a traditional warship until the latest generation hardware was developed. Your ships and mechs are the first in the fleet to have them installed. Does that answer your question, commander?"

"Yes," she blandly responded.

Jun took the moment to bring up his key point, "I hope this also explains to all of you why we left you in the dark about Akito. There was nothing that we could do until we had the equipment to go after him in there."

Ruri, who had stopped crying a while ago, said, "That does not mean you had lie to us about him!"

"Ruri is right Jun!" Yurika added.

"Oh, please!" Jun sardonically exclaimed, surprising everyone. "I know for a fact that both of you would have put your heads together to make some crazy, all and nothing plan like you always do in these situations to try and get Akito out of the Vortex. Except this time you would have ended up with exactly _nothing_! All of you would be dead and there wouldn't even be _corpses_ left for Akito to come home to!"

Jun's scathing remarks left everyone in the room silent. It was unlike the patient and calm officer to lose his temper and lash out like that. But his scolding had adverse affects on both Ruri and Captain Tenkawa.

"No!" The blue-haired captain reeled back in horror, "I could never let my dearest be alone. Not after… after…" Her words broke down as she contemplated a reality more frightening than even her worst nightmares.

"I won't allow it!" She suddenly screamed; fists clenched tightly to her chest. Then she violently began twisting her body back and forth in her seat, as if her sheer will could shake off the thoughts that haunted her.

"Oh, SHIT!" Her impeccably quite XO suddenly shouted. "Get the doctor in there NOW!" Haley reacted in a panic to bring up the ship's surgeon, who was waiting unobtrusively down the corridor, on a holoscreen.

Lt. Commander Owens was doing his best, and failing miserably, to consol his captain that things were alright. Meanwhile, everyone else watched in shocked apprehension as the hysterical captain continued screaming, "No! I'm coming, Akito!" Bright, blue-white lines traced across her body, signaling she was prepping to jump.

Owens yelled out, "Don't let her jump! It could be lethal in her current state!"

Out of sudden fear, Jun sprung into action and frantically ran over to his friend's chair and spun it around to face him. Just in time for the doctor to scramble through the briefing room's sliding door. "Yurika, please! Get a hold of yourself!"

Doctor Trish Camba, a slender brunette from central Spain, ran up with a white kit in hand. "Ten cc's enough Owen's?" she calmly said as she opened her kit and prepped a syringe.

Jun made one last, desperate attempt to reach Yurika, "Snap out of it!" Then came the sharp crack of a slap. Her cries abruptly stopped as the stinging impact on her face registered and the glowing aura of her jump field destabilized and disappeared. Everyone froze.

The next second, a single tear slipped down her cheek and she sprinted out of the room, shoving both Jun and Dr. Camba out of the way, her long, blue hair trailing behind her. Jun called after her as the sliding door closed behind her, but she just kept barreling down the corridor, knocking over anyone unfortunate enough to cross paths with her.

"Dr. Camba," Owen's voice relaxed with the immediate crisis handled, "please tend to the Captain and make sure she returns to the _Nadesico-C_ safely. I do not believe she will further attend the briefing."

"Will do, Jason." The doctor, with professional grace, packed up and unhurriedly ran out to catch her patient.

"Thank you, Trish." Owens said after the doctor had already left and allowed himself a slim smile. This quickly faded when his screen turned to face Jun. "Please choose your words more carefully in future, Admiral?" Professional disgust in every word, he continued, "I assumed you would understand your friend's condition better than this." His screen blinked and then disappeared.

'Nearly killed childhood friend.' Another thing for him to feel guilty about.

A distraught Ruri, also coping with Jun's words, ran her fingers through her bangs. "So I suppose we move on to the planning phase now?"

"No. I'm not even halfway done explaining this situation to you all." 'Oh, WTF now?' was written clearly in their faces. "And this is the part that is the most disturbing.

"In the news broadcasts, I'm sure you've heard about the tragic losses of colonies along the frontier due to 'cataclysmic events'. This is partially true. What you may not know is that all of these colonies lay in close proximity to the vortex." Everyone suddenly became much more interested. "What you certainly don't know is that the 'tragedies' are just a cover story to hide the fact all those colonies are in full scale rebellion."

To the best of his ability, he gave them the play by play of the Chaos rebellion, its possible ties to the Vortex, the enemy's estimated strength, the time critical information he had received, and the true reason they had to find Akito: He just might know what the hell was going on and, together, they had to find a means of stopping it.

* * *

Everyone present for the briefing had been stunned by the sudden appearance of yet another enemy and onset of another war. That added to finding out the government and military had been covering up yet another major rebellion. But they were all veterans and professionals, jumping straight into the task of preparing themselves for the upcoming conflict.

Amy was getting bogged down with questions from the various officers about what type of warships they could expect the enemy to possess when Ryoko flagged Jun down. "Can I speak to you privately for a second?" She asked in her usual gruff tone.

"Sure," he distractedly answered. Now that the hard part of the briefing was past, Jun could let his adjutant handle any questions while he brooded over his best friend's condition. His guilty conscience repeated, 'Bonehead! You nearly killed her!' again and again in his mind.

After they had walked several meters down the empty corridor, Jun was completely unprepared for the pilot's sudden assault. She spun on her heels, grabbed him by the collar of his admiral's uniform, and thrust him up against the hard, white, composite bulkhead. Even in his present state of mind, his immediate response was, "This is assaulting a superior officer!"

"Shut up! You've done enough talking for one day!" Jun stifled any other comments he may have had about her actions. "Now I'm going to make you listen to me," she said with an icy chill.

"You know how hard we've worked to try and find Akito. You know how much pain we go through to be without him. Every day that goes by that we're unable to be with him feels like we are _failing_ our responsibility to him.

"We try as hard as we can to press on, but being apart from him has taken its toll, Jun. As you saw, Yurika is close her limits. She puts on a brave face every day and fights in the hope she will someday be reunited with him. But just like me and Ruri, she is beginning to feel we may never see him again. This last year has been _hell_ for all of us.

"Then suddenly you waltz back here with your pretty little desk fairy and shove down our throats that not only has the military known about Akito's location this whole time, but it, and you, actively lied to us all while covering up a brand new war that has probably already taken over a billion lives. And you have the nerve to expect us to just accept that and go be good little soldiers?"

Jun remained silent, bidding his time. Demanding an answer, the strong pilot drummed him against the wall again, "Well do you?!"

Without any trace of fear, regret, or any other emotion, he said, "Yes."

She slammed against the wall yet another time, this time seriously pissed, snarling, "WHY!?"

Without changing his tone, he simply, and honestly, said, "Because we have no other choices except defeat… and death."

"Bullsh-," she began but her voice was abruptly cut off by other.

"That will be enough, Ryoko," Ruri's mature, commanding voice filled the space around them. Both the enraged pilot and the hassled admiral looked over see an exhausted Ruri with her right arm slung over Haley's shoulders. "Put Jun down… please."

"But-,"

"I said that would be enough, Commander," Ruri said a bit more tersely. Her fatigue was beginning to show a little bit more as she put more of her weight on Hari's shoulder. He didn't look as if he minded in the least. "I know Jun told us things that are hard to bear. Really hard." Her face became somewhat haunted, "I had never considered that our actions might leave Akito with only more sorrow. In the back of my mind, there was always that possiblity that we might find he was truly dead or some other situation where we might never have Akito again in our lives could happen; but never had I thought about those things being reversed."

Then her expression brightened, "But he also gave us confirmation that Akito is alive. That our mission is, once again, to retrieve him and bring him home. That alone is enough for me to look past all the other things he has said and done today. And even the things we didn't want to hear were also true. I've already confirmed them with Omoikane."

"Besides," Ruri looked up at them with a gentle smile, "we should always be able to forgive our friends." She refocused herself on Hari. "I learned that the hard way."

"As I recall," Hari said with amusement, "we both did together."

"No," she sweetly muttered to him as she snuggled herself closer to him, "You were just my collateral damage."

"The sweet things you say," he jokingly said, but he positively beamed as he felt her cheek brush against his. They were a truly beautiful sight; with their unconditional, child-like love for each other.

In the meantime, Ryoko had gently set Jun down. Not even she could stay angry in the presence of such innocence.

But she did still have her pride to consider.

Arms crossed tightly in front of her, she grudgingly said, "Well, if Ruri is willing to forgive you, then I suppose I can, too."

Jun made his own concessions, "I admit, the tongue lashing was probably necessary. I see all too clearly now that I should have approached things differently. Although," changing topics as he massaged the back of his head, "I could have done without the violence."

Ryoko huffed, "Well I guess I just went a little overboard," grinning at her own understatement.

"Yeah," returning a false grin, "just little bit." He would let her insincerity slide for now. Establishing peace in the chain of command was more important.

"Well," The aesty pilot said as she turned to walk away, "I think there are some machines or something that need inspection." Resting both hands in a relaxed position behind her head, she trotted down the hallway. "Later."

When she was out of earshot, Jun whistled, "Her temper has gotten _worse_ since I last came aboard. That is quite an accomplishment."

"That is unfortunately true," Ruri mournfully said, "But it is exactly like she said. The strain of failing to find Akito after so long is finally starting to get to her. The sooner she starts _doing_ something, the better off she'll be."

"Speaking of doing things," Hari noted, "shouldn't you be taking a shuttle over to the _Nadesico-C_ to finish briefing Yurika and Jason?"

"If it is okay with you, I'd like to stay on the bridge, let things calm down a bit over there first."

"That's fine, but you shouldn't delay too long," Ruri cautioned, "We do have a tight schedule to keep."

"Don't worry, I know. There is someone on the bridge I need to get some advice from first."

"Advice?" Both 'fairies' asked at the same time, "From who?"

"You'll see. And while we were on the subject of apologies…"

* * *

Inez Fressange was going through her notes from her first interview with little Jiro. They had had quite the nice little chat: discussing politics, the continued acceleration of human scientific development, the need for alterations in present colonization practices, and many other things one would not expect to talk to a five year old about in such depth.

Not that it was entirely surprising, coming from the child of possibly the two most capable and brilliant human beings in known space. But even his grasp of these concepts and yearning for more knowledge exceeded anything any human, even his parents, should have been able to obtain by his age.

So she had turned to the genetic samples she had collected from both Jiro and his parents. She thought she was going to find DNA mutations similar to Ruri and Haley's, if only more beefed up and diverse. Instead, she found something completely different. Truly different from anything she had seen before.

His DNA was a mutation so extreme; it differed completely from his own parents' genomes. It was still definitely and identifiably human. But if they had been tested for matches, you wouldn't be able to tell Jiro and his parents were even related to each other.

There was a greater mystery to Jiro than anything she had ever encountered before. And she had a nagging suspicion things about Jiro would only get more complicated. Far more complicated. And she knew of a certain project in Nergal that might give her some answers.

* * *

**A/N: This was a really, _really_ long chapter, as those of you reading this just found out. Sorry about that, but it fills up most of the gaps in my plot so I couldn't avoid it. My next chapter should pick up the pace and not be so painfully long.**


	7. Chapter 6

**Turbulence**

Drifting unpowered through the void between Earth and Mars, a lone, black vessel kept constant watch over events in the Sol star system. Its slender, tear drop design was alien to anything developed from Sol.

The captain of the small, five man reconnaissance vessel lifted his reflective, one-way faceplate enough to take another sip from the steaming thermos of hot chocolate he was carrying. "Lord, this ship is freezing!"

Mere silhouettes in the inadequate red lighting in the cramped 'bridge', his crew turned from their stations to face him. All of them were wearing identical black skin suits and face covering helmets designed for use in vacuum. However, they did not keep the wearer particularly warm. Whispering into his suit comm., the systems operator said, "You know we cannot bring anymore systems online, sir. The passive sensors are…"

"I know! I know!" Everyone jerked in pain as the captain spoke a bit too loudly into the sensitive comm unit. Silently apologizing, he took another sip from the thermos and picked up where he left off, "I know that we are already pushing the limits of the stealth systems with the passives." The passive sensors were not critical to the mission nor did they have the range to be effective for the ship's current task. They relied heavily on the information the stealth recon drones gathered and then relayed back to them over secure laser transmissions. They had distributed them at safe distances around their objective. However, they could not afford to accidently run across any other ships. "But I feel better if can complain about it a little."

"No offence, sir, but it doesn't do diddlely for me."

"And at least you've got that hot chocolate!"

"Yeah! Why don't you share some of that with the rest of us?"

Rolling his eyes, he pulled four packets of his precious instant cocoa mix from a compartment beside his command chair. "Alright you parasites, these are my last ones, so savor them while they last!" he said as he tossed one to each man. Since the artificial gravity was deactivated, each one drifted straight to its perspective target.

Suddenly, an alert began sounding from the tactical station and everyone whipped back to their consoles. Examining the data carefully, the lieutenant on the sensor console spoke with professional precision, "Sensor drones report there is a large formation of ships departing Mars orbit. Formation strength: five frigates, two battleships, three destroyers, and one carrier. Ship emission signatures match the profiles we have been given. It's the _Nadesico_ Squadron. ETA to the Gates…" he double checked the math, "five hours, 27 minutes, and 45 seconds."

The captain slapped down his visor, "So, they are finally making their move? Go to full stealth and maneuver to the next preplanned coordinates!"

* * *

On the bridge of the _Largesse_, the communications team was busy coordinating with rest of the oversized _Nadesico_ squadron as they departed Mars orbit and moved away from the massive _Cosmos-_D mobile shipyard. Though the process was largely controlled by Omoikane Prime and its sub-units throughout the battle group, guided all the way by Ruri's invisible hand, humans still had a place in confirming, double checking, and then confirming the accuracy of the process again. The redundancy ensured accidents rarely happened.

Through the chatter coming out her headset, one of the women at the communications station heard the distinctive footsteps of someone familiar quietly approach from behind her. A sly smile stretched across her face as she muted her console, both transmitting and receiving ends, and waited for the sound of those footfalls to end before casually saying, "Can I do something for you, Admiral?"

A moment of surprise and a 'Grrk' later, Jun asked, "How could you tell it was me with that headset on?"

"I turned it off," she said matter-of-factly as she spun her chair to face him, the huge grin she wore brightening her beautiful features even further. Jun sighed in defeat; she had bested his best attempt at stealth yet again. Just to add insult to injury, "Besides, I could tell you were coming from a mile away _with_ it still turned on, Clunky."

Clunky? His brain took a second to absorb that. He had been called many things in life but never 'Clunky'. Where did she come up with some of this stuff anyway?

She snickered at the contorted look on his face. "I take it you don't like your new nickname?" She arched back in her seat, giving more emphasis to her already noticeable assets. Temptation dripping from every word, she said, "So, what did come to see me for?" her hazel eyes emitting the same message. Jun gulped and struggled to recover his focus. Ten years after they had first gotten together and Yukina was still the sexiest woman he had ever known.

Unfortunately, he didn't have time to play games, _al__though_… Shaking his head free of wayward thoughts, he said, "I wanted to talk to you about something."

"Oh, really?" she sarcastically asked. Maintaining her knowing smile, she calmly said, "Would it have something to do with what I saw over the comm. net earlier?" He gawked at her, wondering how she could say that with a smile of all things. Then he noticed the predatorial glint in her eyes.

Unsure how to continue, Jun mumbled incoherently with many 'umm's and 'huh's before the petite communications officer sighed and rose from her seat. "Please sit down, Jun," she said as she gestured to the now vacant seat, "It will help you think more clearly."

"No, I-"

She shook her head, "When I say, 'You need to take a seat,'" she said chidingly while 'gently' pushing him down onto her chair, "You need to take a seat." Everyone with a good view watched awkwardly as their newest crew member pushed the admiral around.

"But-"

"No 'but's," she interrupted as she placed a silencing finger over Jun's lips. She waited until he nodded in agreement before relinquishing his power to speak. With a victorious smile, she sweetly said, "Good," taking the moment to comically situate herself squarely on his lap, putting her arms around his neck and pulling herself close. The admiral, and a few other people, blushed brightly at this strange turn of events. One crewman let out a big, "Whoop!" for the admiral.

"Yukina, we can't-"

"Jun, you need to relax," she softly spoke as she stroked his thin, slick, black hair, making firm contact with his eyes, "I'm here to listen to you, to help ease whatever troubles your mind. Please, you can talk to me about anything." Looking deep into her eyes, he felt the anxiety he had felt since the briefing fade and his thoughts return to a semblance of peace.

Yukina's day shift partners in the communications bay, however were anything but relaxed. "Damnit! How come she can get away with fraternization and we can't?" Veronica muttered irately.

An equally irritated Sakura quietly replied, "Because she's married to the man. You know married couples are exempt from the Navy's regulations on relationships."

"Well, I think we should teach them a lesson or two about discretion," she said with an evil smirk. "Don't you agree?" Sakura grinned viciously as she recognized the series of commands her partner entered into her console.

Regaining his composure with a deep breath, Jun gratefully said, "Your right, Hon. I just needed to calm down. And you are also right about why I'm here." He glanced shamefully down to the floor. "It's imperative that I go to Yurika; both for the mission and for what I did to her. But…" his sentence was cut off as he fell back into the memories of his guilt.

"But you are afraid that she won't forgive you."

"More like 'Scared to Death'." Jun muttered.

"Jun, look at me," she said sternly as she regained her husband's focus, "I know how guilty you are feeling. What you did to Captain Tenkawa was horrible. You know that full well and I'm not about to tell you otherwise." Then her voice mellowed as she stroked her husband's cheek, "But the man I married doesn't let guilt or fear stop him from doing the right thing or making amends. You _are_ a good man, Jun. I know you will make the right decision."

Suitably touched by his wife's speech, Jun managed a small smile, "How did I ever go about living without you?" The question was half joking, of course.

"I honestly can't figure that one out myself," Yukina said innocently, completing her half of the joke. They looked serenely into each other for a few moments before slowly leaning in to tenderly kiss. Every onlooker tensed as the couple drew nearer and nearer until…

"Contact!" cheered the red robed engineering crew in the bowels of the ship as squeels, cheers, whistles, and a number of snide jokes erupted throughout the entire squadron. The couple simply ignored the adolescent behavior on the bridge and carried on. Then Lt. Commander Amelia streaked into the carrier's vast bridge while narrowly dodging a crewman on her way through the sliding door.

As she scrambled past the captain's command chair to the platform that overlooked all the ship's numerous stations that ran the ship and the squadron, a bemused Captain Makabi asked, "What are you doing on…?" However, he never got to finish his question.

Leaning over the platform railing, it didn't take her long to spot her superior. "ADMIRAL! What do you think you're doing?!" Everyone, especially Jun and Yukina, turned in surprise to the flushed young blonde twenty meters above.

Eyeing her suspiciously, Yukina replied back, "Is there something wrong with what we're doing, Ma'am?" To further test Amy's nerves, she made a deliberate show of pressing herself harder against Jun's chest, to which he naturally responded by tightening his own embrace. She carefully studied the officer as she tensed stiffer and flushed brighter. 'Just as I suspected,' she thought angrily and mentally added her to the 'List'.

In firm, commanding tones, Jun said to his subordinate, "I'm sorry if this isn't a perfect picture of what the Book regulates," which he wasn't the least bit sorry, "but what my wife and I do on this ship is _not_ your concern." Yukina proudly beamed up at him, 'That's telling her, Jun!' Whatever feelings that officer had for him, at least she could be certain _her_ man didn't reciprocate them.

"Sir, I'm not…" She looked like she was swallowing bile as she tried to make the words come out, "It's not what the two of you were doing," Yukina huffed as she saw through the lie, "but… But did you _have_ to make such a huge display out of it?"

"A display?" Jun said incredulously, "But you weren't even…"

"That was absolutely PERFECT!" Chief Engineer Uribatake exultantly shouted as his image suddenly appeared in comm. screen next to their faces. "I mean, there hasn't been such a brilliant display of romance in this fleet since Ruri and the captain got married! Oh, and uh…," suddenly wearing his devilish grin, "I hope you don't mind if I took a few screenshots. It was simply too irresistible to pass up."

"You PERVERT!" Yukina screamed at him, "You've been spying on us this whole time?!"

Seiya laughed manically, "Spy on you? Why would I do that when I can watch it on public wave lengths? It was broadcast over an open channel, wasn't it? Every ship in the system must have seen it!"

Jun and Yukina were both dumbstruck, "It was broadcast! But…" Yukina stopped talking when she heard her fellow communications operators failing to suppress their laughter. "You dirty, backstabbing bitch! You did this, didn't you?!"

Veronica managed to straighten herself up enough to reply, "Well, I guess there is no point in hiding it. Yeah, we did it. And do you want to know what the funniest part of all of this is?"

"What?" Yukina said irately.

"That we're still broadcasting." Yukina blushed brightly, "And the look on your face was absolutely priceless."

Yukina sprung out of Jun's lap and marched on her section mate's console, "Turn that thing off now!"

"Do it yourself."

"Fine! I will!" She lunged at the controls as both Veronica and Sakura moved to block her, teasing her as she frantically tried reaching through to the console. Hari was screaming orders at them to stop from a hovering holo-screen, but eventually called in security after they kept ignoring him.

Jun was shaking his head in dismay as his adjutant tried to yank him out the chair by the arm. "Common, Sir! We have to take a shuttle to the _Nadesico__-_C _now_ or else we won't have enough time to give a full briefing!"

All of this was available for the entertainment and amusement of everyone in the Nadesico Squadron. And in the darkness and isolation of her quarters, even a certain blue haired captain managed to crack a smile through her sadness as Yukina finally broke through the other two women just as the squad of marines on guard duty pounced on them and the transmission ceased.

* * *

Walking together down a corridor that led to one of the shuttle launch bays, Jun, Yukina, and Amelia made their way through the bustle. Yukina had been permitted to see off her husband; after the captain informed her that she would have a month's pay deducted from her salary for her part in the 'disturbance'. Her presence only brought a silent animosity between her and Amelia and not a word was exchanged between the three.

Jun sighed as the awkward silence drew out. He had hoped the two of them would be able to get along but that turned out be a far-flung wish. Both his possessive wife and protective adjutant were striving to shield him from the other and there could be no reconciliation.

There were many times in the past that Jun had wished to be in Akito's shoes; before the later had been abducted. But this was one of the things that even he hadn't envied about the former cook/reluctant pilot's position when he'd had several women chasing after him.

As they approached the launch bay, Jun attempted to strike up a conversation, "I wonder if there will be any open positions in the kitchen staff when we recover Akito?"

"If there isn't one, you can bet Ruri or Yurika will make one for him," Yukina answered, trying to get into a sociable mood.

"You are member of the UEAF Space Forces now Ensign Aoi," Amy pointedly stated, "You should address your commanders in an appropriate manner." Crewmen that were within earshot rolled their eyes. No one did that unless they were speaking directly to said officers.

Jun sighed, 'Here we go again.'

Yukina looked at Amy viciously, "And I'm sure that _Captain __Tenkawa_ will keep Akito tucked safely away somewhere so that no unsavory women can try digging their claws into _her _husband."

"And just what are you insinuating about _me_, Ensign?"

'I think I liked the silence better,' Jun thought to himself.

Immediately after they entered the bay, a young technician in a blue uniform ran up to the group. "Admiral Aoi, Sir," the young man saluted, "Your shuttle, number seven, is prepped and ready to launch as soon as you're onboard, Sir!"

"Excellent work, crewman," Jun said as he returned the salute, "Please extend my thanks to the rest of the work and shuttle crew."

"Will do, Sir!" The E-1 crewman smartly about-faced and left to report to his NCO.

The trio walked together to Shuttle Seven and Jun stopped at the boarding ramp. He turned to a still steaming Yukina and embraced her tightly and she blushed lightly. It wasn't Jun's style express himself so openly on his own. "Please hang in there for just a little while," he whispered into her ear, "After we've finished this mission we'll get to go home together for a long vacation, I promise."

"Okay," she said faintly. She looked up at him and they smiled happily to one another. "Well, I guess you'd better get going."

"Yeah. I love you, hon."

"Oh, get onboard before you embarrass someone, you mushy sap!" she teased him, still blushing.

He gave her a mock salute, "Aye, Ma'am!" He turned to find Amelia had become very interested in something on the other side of the bay. "Lt. Commander, we're departing now."

"Oh! Yes, Sir!" As they were about to board the shuttle a comm. screen appeared before the admiral.

"Admiral Aoi, Sir," the officer in the screen said, "I am Captain Arnold Javier of the frigate ND-2557 _Pigglesworth_. I was hoping you would be able to come by and answer some sensitive questions about our mission."

"I'm sorry, Captain Javier," Admiral Aoi professionally, "but I'm afraid we are already overdue to finish briefing Captain Tenkawa on the _Nadesico_-C. There is not enough time for us to come to both ships."

"Admiral, Sir." Amy said resignedly, "I can go answer Captain Javier's questions. You go on to the _Nadesico_-C without me." She sounded as if she was making a great sacrifice leaving Jun.

"Amy, it's times like these I'm thankful for your reliability," he said, patting her proudly on the shoulder. "We'll knock both of them out at the same time." Amy's depression lifted somewhat at her superior's praise. With a dignified salute and handshake, the two officers split ways.

While Amelia left to requisition another shuttle, Jun stopped for one last goodbye with Yukina. "You take good care with Yurika. I do not want you to come back until the entire fence is mended between you two."

"You can count on it."

"I had better get back to my duty station before the captain decides to cut my pay in half. Not that it matters," she added with a wink. They said their goodbyes and Jun disappeared into the shuttle. She watched as the mass driver launched his craft clear of the ship and rocket away to the _Nadesico_.

As she walkedback into the corridors of the carrier, a victorious smile swept across her face. Now that letch wouldn't get a chance to make a move on Jun. Javier was so incredibly dependable.

* * *

Yurika watched silently as the white shuttle was guided into the hanger. It was still spacious compared to UE Spacey's standards but was far smaller than the one on the carrier flagship. And this time, she would be the only one to greet Jun and his adjutant when they departed the shuttle.

Despite what she had seen earlier, she didn't know what to expect from this visit. Jun wasn't the kind of person that wore his emotions on his sleeves; he may try and avoid talking about the 'incident' and stick strictly to business. But after talking to Ruri a little while ago, she held a seed of hope that Jun would come through for her.

The hatch on the shuttle popped open and the exit ramp descended to the hanger floor. When she saw Jun appear at hatchway and straighten out his uniform, she put on the best smile she could. It was a sad smile but a smile nonetheless.

As Jun departed the shuttle, he was relieved to find there wasn't another grand welcoming ceremony. But she could tell he was nervous beneath his professional appearance. After being friends for so many years she could read him like a book. He was worried about what being met informally might mean.

When he reached the captain he gave a firm salute, "Permission to come aboard, Madame Captain?"

Yurika took his hand that was still at rest and cusped it gently between her own; which took the admiral by surprise. "Oh, Jun," she said with her melancholy smile, "You know you are always welcome onboard my ship."

"Thank you, Yurika," he said mildly, gently putting down his saluting hand, "It's comforting to know that I still am."

A bit regretfully, Yurika continued in quite tones, "Well, I suppose we had better hurry before…" She paused to look quizzically over his shoulder, "Jun, didn't Amelia come with you?"

"The captain of the _Pigglesworth_ suddenly had some questions that needed to be answered, so we split up." The dedicated woman inside Yurika immediately had suspicions about those sudden 'questions', but she wouldn't tell Jun that. Recognizing the hijinks in play did raise her spirits, however.

With a sweeping smile, Yurika exclaimed cheerfully, "Well we've certainly got a lot of stuff to talk about so let's not waste any time!" By the hand she already had hold of, she began dragging Jun off towards the ship's briefing room. Excitedly she thought to herself, 'This is just like old times!'

'Only a god could keep pace with your mood swings,' Jun mused to himself as they took off down the labyrinth of white hallways and elevators.

It didn't them long to reach the room. Neither of them even had to catch their breath. They walked through the sliding doors into the well lit room and sat down across from each other at the nearest end of the long table.

"Yurika," Jun began solemnly, "I'd like to thank you again for welcoming me here. It really means a lot to me." He paused to take a deep breath and let it out slowly to calm his nerves, "But more importantly, I'm sorry Yurika. I'm sorry and ashamed for the way I treated you in that briefing. I let my frustration get the better of me and it nearly killed you. There is no excuse for me, as a man, as an officer, as your _friend,_ to have put you through that. I am so very sorry."

"Jun…," Yurika said softly, her eyes welling-up with tears, "Thank you," sniffling, "That's just what I need to hear." She rose from her chair, walked over to Jun and embraced him tightly. Jun sympathetically stood and held his oldest friend in his arms as she cried on his shoulder.

* * *

Jun had his arm around her shoulders as they walked together to the bridge of the _Nadesico_. They were talking cheerfully about 'that broadcast', the possibilities this mission represented, and old times. When they walked onto the bridge, the sandy haired Jason Owens was giving methodic instructions to the bridge crew. He looked up when he heard the pair walk in and stood at firm attention, "Admiral on deck!" The rest of the bridge followed suit.

"As you were, ladies and gentlemen." How he got tired of saying that everywhere he went.

Yurika got into her professional attitude, "How far along are we in line to the gates, Jason?" She was annoyed to find Jason checking the time before she finished the first syllable. 'How does he do that?'

"The squadron will be heading through in seven minutes, Captain."

* * *

The crew of the stealth vessel eyed its quarry steadily as they formed up at separate flower-like 'Chulip' gates to jump as one formation. The captain of the vessel had lifted his visor again to drink another batch of hot chocolate. Turns out they had entire ration box full of them in the back. It tasted horrible as military rations were wont to be, but it was better than hot water. "How much longer?"

"Under five minutes until they go through the gates, sir," the tactical officer to his right whispered. A holographic countdown display appeared at the captain's station.

"This is spaceship," the captain pointed out in annoyance, "not a submarine; you don't _have_ to whisper. They can't hear us," he added as he knocked on the side of his helmet.

"We know that, Captain," whispered the communications officer on his far left, "It just fits the mood."

The captain rolled his eyes, "If you call this mood, then this mission must be a vacation to Peaceland," he said sarcastically.

He noticed the countdown as it dropped under three minutes. "Alright," the captain ordered, "Deliver the package through the gate the carrier will go through. Synch the launch so that the package travels through the gate at the same time as the carrier."

"Aye, sir."

Outside the vessel, a small launch bay opened and the 'package' was armed.

"You know," the tactical officer mused, "it really is too bad they'll never get the chance to appreciate what were about to do."

The sensors officer, who was the youngest and usually most talkative crewmember, sounded confused as he suddenly asked, "What's a submarine?"

The captain grunted as he shook his head in dismay. Just another day in Fleet Recon.

* * *

Ruri eyes were flashing brightly as data streamed through her IFS implants into her consciousness. She tirelessly oversaw every aspect of the squadron's transition into the 'Chulips'. "Thirty seconds until the squadron jumps," one of the crewmen announced. Thirty seconds until they were in the Nexus system and into another war.

She sighed as the carrier went through the gate, disappearing for a brief instant into a vast sea of swirling light and reappearing inside the exit to their destination. She suddenly came across a sensor reading that showed a small object accelerating past them…

* * *

Hidden far outside the range of detection sat a fleet of sleek black warships observing the chaos of a star system.

In his dense, black battle armor, the commander of the stealthed ships patiently listened to the action reports from his sensor crews. Details were hazy since they wouldn't dare to even send recon drones with that many active sensors blasting away. So they relied on the sensitive passive sensors to read the emissions signatures of known formations. That those signatures often overlapped made things even more difficult.

"Sir," one of his officers reported, "Six more ships from the 5th squadron have defected to the invading forces and are now firing upon their sister ships. Our estimates now put Earth losses at over 40 percent from only fifty Terran minutes of combat.

"Also, it seems that assault force Gamma is consolidating their position around the Gates. They have reinforced with five more cruisers and two drone carriers. But the first thing anyone coming through those gates will run into is that wall of nuclear anti-ship mines." He pointed to the bright radiological emissions indicated on the tactical display.

"Then let's hope our little spy in Sol can accomplish their mission." The display suddenly flashed with new life with energy emissions from the activating gates, followed by the signatures of emerging warships. Then the entire area became shrouded in the electromagnetic waves of 700 megatons of nuclear weapon.

* * *

The ship bucked violently as the distortion field collided with the massive wave of energy. "DAMAGE REPORT!" Ruri screamed. "I want a damage report from all ships!" She looked down to Hari, "Captain, what in the hell did we hit?!"

* * *

"A few more seconds and they would have gotten the full force of that blast," an officer chided, "They definitly got lucky this time."

"Yes, but at least our men accomplished their mission," the commander pointed out. "And after months of watching the United Earth forces do nothing, I was beginning to wonder if they would just put off sending them out here indefinitely. We've had to delay our own plans so long that I was starting to worry we would never get to use them.

"Bureaucrats, pah!" the captain spat, "It's sickening to think that the only force in the galaxy to slow us down is a bunch of fat, rich admirals and generals too lazy and slow to fight a proper war!"

The black armored commander laughed at the captain's quip. "That is regrettably true Gerard. But now that they have shown that they aren't entirely incompetent, I'm anxious to see what the crew of the legendary _Nadesico_ can do.

* * *

**A/N: Well, they are finally in the thick of things. Expect a grand display of the new weapons next chapter. I've been waiting for this part a long time!**


	8. Chapter 7

**Counter Punch **

**A/N: I'd like to thank everyone who's been following my little work of fiction. It makes me feel that my efforts are worth continued pursuit. **

**Though I seem to have plenty of readers I haven't had that many reviews. I really want to hear your feedback on my progress. So, if you get the chance please leave a review.**

* * *

"What's our status?" Captain Tenkawa yelled at her chief engineer, one of Uribatake's robed ubergoobers, through a comm. screen as the ship shook violently. His image was covered in static as another large wave of anti-ship missiles detonated against the distortion field.

"The shields are taking quite a pounding, Ma'am. But our battleship engines that power them were designed to take **a lot** more than this. It's the-" His image faded out again as a barrage of energy weapons deflected off the shields.

"Mr. Aker!" She activated another holographic comm. screen to the crewmen at the tactical station, "Get the gravity cannon ready to fire now!" As the forward section of the ship began expanding into its traditional 'legged' position to expose its primary weapon, Chief Aker's connection was restored. "What was it you were about to say?"

"I said, 'It's the smaller ships that are in trouble,' Ma'am. Even with the new hardware," he added grimly, "this much concentrated firepower could overwhelm single engine vessels." Yurika began analyzing their situation again. It had been more than ten minutes since they had come through the gates. The squadron was still in the formation they had arrived in with the carrier at the center, closely flanked by her battleship consorts, and the smaller vessels shielding above and below. If the enemy was competent, they would soon realize engaging the larger vessels with nothing bigger than a cruiser was an exercise in futility.

"Ma'am," a tactical officer shouted, "we can't fire the graviton cannon from this position! There are still friendly ships that would get caught in the line of fire!"

'If we don't do something fast, the enemy will discover our tactical disadvantage.' Yurika thought grimly, 'We can't even give effective mutual support fire as things are.' She opened a screen to the tactical station, "Then set the arrays for pin-point-combat," her order made everyone cringe, "We'll take them down one by one if that's what it takes to break through!"

Pin-point engagements were a relatively new concept to the space fleet. Modern naval doctrines from before and after the Jovian/Earth War relied on the premise of destroying the enemy as fast as possible using weapons that could destroy multiple ships in a single attack and battle computers that could make complex maneuvers too risky to take. Battles simply involved lining up the ships of both sides and slugging it out until one side or the other withdrew.

Pin-point engagements, on the other hand, meant foregoing the use of heavy armaments to engage the enemy ship by ship. The principle of doing this was to cleanly cut a path through a weak point in an enemy force to open a more tactically suitable position or an escape route should a ship's heavier weapons become unusable. Unfortunately, no one who has attempted to use this doctrine has ever succeeded.

Jun, who had been standing quietly beside the captain's chair, made his own grim decision. "Yurika," he spoke urgently. The captain turned to him a little surprised; she had almost forgotten he was there. "This was supposed to wait until much later in the mission but it looks like we're going to need the new missiles _now_. I'll send the authorization to Ruri immediately." Yurika nodded in understanding and gave the order to begin cycling 'Secret Weapon #1' into the launch tube magazines.

Yurika opened a tactical layout as the first target for the 'pin-point' system was selected by the ship's computer, one of Omoikane's subunits. Other target indicators from the squadron's other ships were fed to Yurika's screen as Ruri and Omoikane coordinated the counterattack. The forward tips of the ship's 'legs' retracted to reveal the business end of the fully charged energy arrays that ran down the entire length of the ship. In a brilliant spectacle of cascading light, the intense beams of energy lashed out across space as every ship launched a salvo of standard missiles into the enemy's 'right' flank.

The crew on the bridge watched in fascination as their ship's powerful new energy 'lances' impacted an enemy heavy cruiser's distortion field. In the previous war, energy weapons like lasers had simply been deflected harmlessly off any vessel with a distortion field to protect it. The energy lances, however, were not mere lasers. In the first second, they 'splashed' around the shield like a tidal wave crashing against the rocks as they met resistance, but then the shield burst as the engines powering it destabilized under the strain. The cruiser's hull shattered as it was penetrated from bow to stern then exploded brilliantly with five of its sisters a brief moment later.

The ships went to maximum thrust behind their missiles into breach they created. Dozens of missiles went straight into the enemy's shattered formation and suddenly scattered in all directions at the preprogrammed moment Ruri had set for the missile's sensors to kick in. The missiles went after the emission signatures of Aestivalis, those strange scorpion attack drones, a few frigates that hadn't been targeted earlier, and some even wasted themselves on debris. Guess nothing was perfect.

Then a new order came from the ever composed silver haired squadron commander, "All Aestivalis, launch immediately."

* * *

"Hell yeah," Commander Ryoko Subaru, ready for combat in her skin-tight, red pilot's suit, yelled out across her command net. "Alright Dirt-bags, remember the Plan!" All the pilots under her command listened intently as the 'drop bays' beneath the carrier retracted. "We go full speed into gap the Commodore was so generous to make for us, maintaining formations, and DESTROY EVERYTHING THAT GETS IN OUR WAY!"

The furious battle cry of green and veteran pilots alike as they simultaneously dropped free of the carrier that answered her orders brought a vicious grin to her face. She could already tell the enemy didn't stand a chance against her pilots. She quickly rallied her squadrons into formations and they stormed towards the enemy.

On a private comm. channel, Hikaru, in her orange pilot suit, and Izumi, in a green suit, were performing their own combat ritual. "It looks like certain someone can feel her blood flowing," Hikaru began in a cheerful tone.

"Her blood flowing? Then does she have a hardon for combat?"

Hikaru felt her cheeks heat, "Izumi, you are such a perv!" She laughed in spite of herself. "You should know better than to give me _that_ kind of ammunition for my manga!"

A very displeased Ryoko suddenly appeared on holo-screens inside their mechs, "I don't know what the two of you are saying about me but…," she paused for a moment as if searching for the right words, "SHUT THE HELL UP!" Her message delivered, the image abruptly blinked closed. Both of the mischievous pilots just laughed at getting the predictable reaction from their friend and commander.

Ryoko tore her mind from the annoying distraction as her Aestivalis approached the enemy line. She didn't have time to assess the entire situation but she could tell the enemy was reacting slowly to the _Nadesico_ squadron's change in tactics. It seemed they were just staying in place and trying to dump as much fire as possible even as they got flanked. Ryoko snorted in distaste; whoever the traitor in command was, she was obviously not skilled or experienced enough to command so many ships.

Her sensors suddenly alerted her to the presence of a large number of incoming enemy drones and a handful of older interceptor Aestivalis, maybe half a squadron. 'The enemy isn't completely incompetent if they know how to scramble an intercept.'

As usual, the enemy had vast numerical superiority on their side. The attack drones alone outnumbered her Aestivalis eight to one; and the opposing Aestivalis inflated that number even further. But her new heavy assault Aestivalis were the most powerful mechs ever built by Nergal Heavy Industries.

Its design was directly descended from Uribatake's failed Aestivalis-X project fourteen years ago. It was 50 percent larger than the average combat mech and powered by its own mini-phase transition engine. It was an improvement over previous suits she had piloted in every respect; it was harder, faster, better, stronger. Every unit came with its own shoulder mounted particle cannon with limited tracking capabilities and could easily handle every weapon in the UEAF arsenal.

Though it was different from the eccentric engineer's design in some ways, he had initially thrown a fit that the military had stolen his design. But after a little time tinkering with the new units, and a very generous after-the-fact payment for the patent, he let the issue slide. Now he was more enthusiastic than everyone else to see how the new toys actually performed.

'He gets so worked up over machines.' Ryoko grinned wryly to herself, 'I'll show him a performance that'll give him wet dreams every night for a month.'

She watched as the swarms of scorpion-like drones speed in for a frontal assault while the enemy Aestivalis maneuvered to position themselves 'above' her incoming formation. 'The cowards want to fire from a safe distance while we engage the drones.' The commander licked her lips hungrily, 'I'll just have to show them there is no safe place to shoot at me.'

She ordered the half of her squadron that was armed with close combat disruptor staves that were as long as their Aestivalis to charge straight into attacking drones. If they broke that line, they would be able to engage the enemy ships where they were most vulnerable.

Fourty-five mechs plunged into the enemy mass with Ryoko at maximum combat speed. Even before they had come within reach of their energy staves, the particle cannons mounted on their shoulders were exchanging fire with the energy blasts from the arched tails of the enemy drones. In those brief seconds, energy rounds bounced of the mechs' powerful shields while the particle cannons blew through the drones that were not in the formation's direct path. A brilliant ring of destruction heralded their approach.

Ryoko could see one of the drones clearly for the first time as neared for a kill. She could make out the insectoid appearance, the crimson armor plating on its back, the energy coils charging in its tail, and those ugly, yellow, glowing eyes she had learned to both hate and fear during the Jovian/Earth War.

The drone adjusted the arch in its tail as it prepared its next shot. Ryoko felt time slow as adrenaline filled her veins. She felt her body move in slow motion as she fed neural instructions through her IFS into her machine; moving with the perfection that she had trained into herself after years of combat.

As the energy blast was fired her way, she instinctively rolled left to evade. In the unnatural slowness, she thought she could actually _feel_ it pass mere centimeters away from her cockpit. As she turned, her weapon was already in position to strike. Her neural feedback registered the disruptor head of the stave slice effortlessly through the drones shield and then through the drone itself. As she blew past, the halved drone exploded behind her.

Her most experienced pilots followed their commander's lead and cut into the drones with fierce tenacity. They weaved through the enemy without fear or thought, relying entirely on their instinct and experience in the deadly dance of battle.

In a matter of seconds they had broken through the enemy and into the hole in the enemy line of battle. The drones immediately changed direction, their simple battle computers tasked only with protecting the capital ships from small craft. The most immediate threat registered as the Aesties that had just broken through, so they turned to engage them again. But that proved to be their destruction as the remaining forty-five mecha came in from behind with _ranged_ weaponry and blew the surviving drones into scrap metal.

The two Aestivalis groups reorganized as they came under fire from the fifteen enemy mecha. They had a motley assortment of old ballistic weapons, laser rifles, and a single particle cannon. The heavy shielding on Ryoko's squadrons easily shrugged off the incoming fire.

The three squadrons divided up to do as much damage as possible to the enemy before Ruri's ships moved into position. Izumi volunteered her squadron to hunt the harassing enemy mechs and keep new enemy squadrons at bay. In her usual mock seriousness, Izumi shouted, "Resistance is futile!" Her men couldn't help smirking at their squadron commander's fragrent abuse of cliche as they cut down the stragglers.

The enemy was finally beginning to move new ships to fill the gap that had been created from both the left and right of the _Nadesico_ squadron's approach. Hikaru's squadron took the right group and Ryoko's took the left where the bulk of the enemy fleet was located. They not only had to prevent the gap from being refilled but they had to secure as much breathing room for their ships as possible. A gravity blast at close range was uncomfortably close to being lethal for any ship.

With less than two minutes to accomplish what they could, they threw themselves against the enemy ships. Dividing themselves up further, they attacked the enemy two or three ships at a time. Like wasps attacking a small animal, Aestivalis jabbed distruptor staves into the distortion fields of ships until they collapsed and backed off as the ship killers finished off the prey.

Ruri almost had the ships in position when another wave of drones came sweeping in from the left enemy formation, even more than there had been in the last wave. That was what Ryoko hated the most about fighting drones; it didn't matter how many you destroyed, the enemy _always_ seemed to have ten times that many ready to replace them.

"Everyone regroup at my position above our ships!" Her sensors showed the enemies fire begin to cover the space they just cleared as Ruri's ships entered the gap, "I don't want to accidently lose anyone to capital ship fire!"

A fire support indicator suddenly flashed to life over the enemy drones. Ruri's gentle face appeared in a screen beside Ryoko, "I hope you don't mind if I lend you a little aid."

Ryoko offered her long time commander and friend a grin in return, "Please be my guest and help yourself." Missiles from every ship that had been focused on enemy ships now launched into the approaching drone swarm. The potent anti-ship missiles knocked out three or four drones with each impact. When the salvo was finished, the enemy's numbers had been dramatically reduced.

But Ryoko was still badly outnumbered by at least five to one and she couldn't rely on taking advantage of their relatively stupid battle computers this time.

She ordered her units armed with small gravity cannons to take the opening shot. There were only twelve units that had the small but expensive arrays that replaced most of the machines lower arm assembly with the cumbersome unit. The array fed directly from the suit's PT engine via lightly armored conduits. It made them vulnerable and risky to place up front. She would just have to keep them covered.

Light emanated from the capacitors in the weapon arrays as they charged. Then everything around them seemed to go white before the light filters could act when they fired. Even together, they had nowhere near the power or range of even a frigate's gravity array. But they disintegrated dozens of the insect-like drones instantly as the graviton energy waves crossed paths with them.

The mecha commander ordered the heavy artillery back as the enemy entered the range of her particle cannons. Everyone viciously unleashed their fire on full auto in the sparse seconds before the fighting went to close combat. More explosions dotted star filled vacuum around Nexus. Ryoko gritted her teeth and her mech gripped its stave tightly as the distance fell.

She lashed down on the first drone that came her way, six more coming in behind it. Her pilots' efforts had reduced the odds down to almost three to one. Almost.

She released her stave and grabbed the tail of another drone with both hands as it attempted an attack run on one of her people from behind. She did a full power clockwise spin and slammed her victim into another passing drone. Both shattered to jagged pieces in all directions.

Her people were fighting with everything they had. Then she watched in shock as a drone actually landed on distortion field of one of her men, labeled Jonas Withal by the IFF. With a violent thrust, it lodged the pointed end of its energized tail through the field and open fire.

Jonas was one her most experienced NCO's and he reacted quickly, but not fast enough. As he tried to spin around to face his attacker, an energy round hit his charging particle cannon and exploded, destroying his left arm and sending his machine's head careening through the blackness.

Seeing one of her men harmed threw Ryoko into a rage. Shields and thrusters at full power, she slammed straight into the drone, the impact shattering its frame and destroying its computer and sent it spinning lifelessly out of sight.

Five more drones decided to engage her. She primed her machine's fists, "Bring it ON!" Suddenly, particle cannon rounds intercepted all five drones from below. Ryoko blinked in surprise to see the defensive Aestivalis wing, lead by Lt. Tori Long, coming to their aid. Moments later, the battle with the drones was over.

* * *

'I took too long to realize they needed more aid,' Ruri chastised herself in her mind. The 'screen bubble' prominently displayed Ryoko's Aestivalis squadrons fighting for their lives and the Tori's wing rushing to their aid. Several yellow damage icons dotted Ryoko's formations and Ruri's grip tightened when she looked at them.

"It's not your fault, Ruri," Haley tried consoling her, speaking to her through the electric plane they entered when synced with Omoikane. "Please don't blame yourself." He had grown accustomed to reading her subtle changes in mood. And he knew Ruri always blamed herself when they took casualties. Blamed herself for not being smarter, not being faster, not being more prepared… not being able to predict the future.

"I am their commander, Haley. The responsibility for their lives… responsibility for their _deaths…_ _is mine_."

"But the responsibility for this war is _theirs_!" Hari flashed images of the enemy fleet they were almost perfectly lined up to destroy. "The blood of everyone that will die in this war lies on their hands _and_ the sadistic freak the leads them!"

"I know that but…"

"Hari-kun is correct Ruri-chan," Omoikane decided to add. It still addressed others with the Japanese suffixes it had used since its creation despite the military adopting English as the standard language for all branches. And it also still carried its longstanding friendship with Ruri since that time. "We all did what could reasonably be expected in the situation we found ourselves."

"And that includes you, Hon," Hari added sweatly.

Ruri still couldn't sure if her hands were clean of guilt or not but she did feel comforted by their words. She thought about giving some kind of thank you when the tactical station reported that enemy was fully enveloped by their target envelope. She would have to repay Omoikane with a game later and Hari, well, he would be pretty easy to please.

"Attention all ships! Open Fire!"

As the enemy's sustained fire of light gravity cannons, lasers, and missiles continued to be shrugged off by their distortion fields, the energy arrays finished their charging cycle and all eleven ships fired as one.

What the enemy was not able to accomplish in twenty minutes of combat, Ruri's command finished in an instant. That the enemy had not changed positions or formation made things even easier. It was the most incredible display of power any of them had seen since Nergal locked away the Y-Unit and its PT cannon thirteen years ago.

A barely visible hellstorm of graviton energy was unleashed that destroyed everything it touched. It washed over the enemy fleet in a mere fraction of a second, sparing only a lonely few on the fringes of its wake. The warships it swept across ceased existing as tangible matter. What had once been a fleet was now merely a hole in space. Seventy-three ships gone in an instant.

"Communications," Ruri called.

"Yes, Commodore?" Yukina replied.

"Instruct the _Rascal_ and the _Wanker_ to do a mop up here."

"Aye, Ma'am."

"Tactical," Ruri demanded, "Is there a force of surrounded friendlies 1,943 kilometers from our present position?"

The chief tactical officer checked the sensors and replied, "Yes, Ma'am. It looks like at least ten friendly vessels are engaged there."

"Captain, recall the Aestivalis and get their injured treated immediately."

"Aye, Ma'am," Hari answered from his command chair below Ruri. "Attention! All Aestivalis…"

"Communications, instruct all of our remaining ships to proceed to the support of friendly forces. And continue attempts to raise the commanding ship or officer of Nexus."

Ruri continued giving orders as her ships, minus two frigates, rushed to aid the only friendly force they could clearly identify. She easily could have performed all of these tasks herself, but it was important that she let the crew earn their salaries. She needed to keep their skills sharp but also prevent them from relying too much on her. Because if she was ever called away or incapacitated, they needed to be able to depend on each other.

* * *

The black fleet remained still and silent as they observed the actions of the _Nadesico _battle group. After easily dealing with the fleet surrounding the Gate terminals, these interesting people with their remarkable new ships made mince meat out the forces attacking the remnants of the 72nd Cruiser Fleet and 9th Destroyer flotilla.

"They took out four battleships, thirty cruisers, and hell knows how many support ships without breaking a sweat," the armored commander said admiringly.

"Forgive me if I'm not impressed," the sarcastic captain said as he scratched his balding head. At least his brown hair hadn't started going gray yet. "Given the stupidity of their opponents, a tram filled with circus clowns probably could have taken them out. Hell, the first fleet they fought didn't have enough sense to let their comrades know a new enemy force arrived."

The commander snorted, "Give credit where credit is due, Gerard. That second force had cut through the UE line of battle, isolated three entire UE Space Fleet groups, and had already finished off one of them by the time our… friends arrived to save them."

Captain Gerard crossed his arms, "Well, I think the UE are a sorry bunch of losers, too. So I'm still not impressed."

The man in black armor shook his head and laughed, "Your stubbornness will be the end of you, my good friend.

"Besides, I'm not asking you to be impressed with them. I'm wanting you to gauge their combat potential... and think of how they will react when _he_ comes to meet them on the battlefield."

* * *

"Thank you! Thank you _so_ much Commodore!" Captain Kakuji Kato had not stopped thanking Ruri over the last three minutes. Out of two small fleets and a flotilla, the Captain Kato was the senior ranking officer to survive.

"Again, we are grateful to have rescued as many of our fellow soldiers as possible." Ruri, for her part, was hiding her impatience well behind her courtesy. She felt the urgency of the situation breathing down her neck. They needed to aid as many UE Spacey forces as possible so an effective counter attack could be organized. "I recommend you retreat to the Nexus terminal to treat your injured and reorganize."

"Oh we will _definitely_ do that, Commodore! Again, I…" The captain was abruptly cut off as one of the communications officers shouted there was a Priority Alpha message for Commodore Ruri Makibi.

A large holo-screen opened at the front of the bridge but the image was shrouded in static and the voice grabbled. "Can you boost the signal?" If this was an Alpha message, then the sender would have to be a high ranking officer trying to reach her.

And if that was true, then what he had to tell her must be vital to victory in the Nexus system.

Slowly, the officer's image became clearer. Hari's eyes widened in shock and dismay when he recognized the man on the screen. "Oh, God," he pleaded up to the ceiling, "Please! Anything but this man I beg you!"

The officer was the spitting image an old military poster boy. He was tall, dark, and handsome. He was still lean and trim, with slick black hair, and looked absolutely immaculate in his well decorated uniform, complete with an admiral's insignia.

"It has been many years since I had the privilege to gaze upon the Jewel of the Stars," he said in a voice made to melt a woman's heart. Even Ruri could help but to blush as she listened to him address her. "It is my honor to serve with you again, the ever dignified and beautiful Commodore Ruri Makibi."

"Aren't you MARRIED, DAMNIT?!" Hari screamed at the honorable Vice Admiral Araragi.

* * *

**A/N: Honestly, I had a lot of fun writing this chapter. I'm at my best when things are getting blown up!**

**And does anyone know what Araragi's first or last name is? All I can find is the one name for the guy.**


End file.
